‘Evil Dead 2′ is “Not Going to Happen” Says the Team Behind the Remake

At the SXSW premiere of the 'Evil Dead' remake, director Fede Alvarez told the hopped up crowd that Sony Pictures loved the film so much, he was already hard at work writing the sequel. And, when we spoke to producer Rob Tabert the next morning, he told us, "We would love for Fede to do ['Evil Dead 2']."

But, something changed between March and now as the current word is that 'Evil Dead 2' is "not going to happen."

Rodo Sayagues, Alvarez's frequent collaborator and co-writer of the 'Evil Dead' script, spoke to Desde Hollywood and had a harsh update for horror fans hoping for another 'Evil Dead' adventure:

Look, I am sorry to tell you this but that movie won’t happen. Evil Dead 2 is not going to happen, at least not with us involved. We left that project many months ago because we preferred to put our energies on other things. I don’t know if the producers still have intentions of making it. But what I can tell you is that we are not part of that project.

Alvarez and Sayagues are currently working on developing 'Dante's Inferno' for Universal, but it's unclear what kind of "creative disagreements" led to their departure from the film.

While it wasn't a huge hit, the 'Evil Dead' remake made almost $100 million worldwide on only a $17 million budget. We would think that Sony Pictures and producer Sam Raimi would want to keep that train rolling and launch a new franchise. Maybe Alvarez wanted too much money? Maybe he just wanted to move onto bigger projects? Maybe Sam Raimi wants to instead focus on 'Army of Darkness 2'? Or maybe Sony Pictures just has no interest in continuing the franchise.

We were fans of the remake, but never really felt that this version of the story needed much in the way of a sequel. In an era when we have too many pointless sequels (we're looking at you, Percy Jackson), maybe it's OK to just enjoy a standalone horror film (even if it was a remake).