Starz 'Ash vs Evil Dead' Casts Lucy Lawless

Just when you thought the Ash vs Evil Dead reunion of Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi offered enough Starz for one lifetime, another major Raimi reunion makes things even groovier. Xena herself, Lucy Lawless will join the Evil Dead TV series in a major role, but will she prove friend or foe?

Per Starz’s official press release on the matter, Lawless will reunite with Xena executive producers Raimi and Rob Tapert to play the Evil Dead role of Ruby, a mysterious figure “myopic” in her quest to hunt down the source of the recent Evil outbreaks, unfortunately believing Ash (Bruce Campbell) to be the cause of it all. Lawless joins a cast that also includes Ray Santiago’s Pablo Simon Bolivar, Dana DeLorenzo’s Kelly Maxwell and Jill Marie Jones’ Amanda Fisher.

Shooting in New Zealand and set for a late 2015 debut of 10 half-hour episodes, and with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert on board to write and direct, here’s how Starz describes the new series:

Bruce Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons –personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its “Evil” grip.

For those unfamiliar with the original Evil Dead, the film followed Campbell’s Ash and friends as they visited a woodland cabin, where they accidentally release demons intent on possessing the living. The film spawned two sequels and numerous tie-ins, as well as the recent 2013 reboot.

Now that Lucy Lawless has come aboard, who else of Sam Raimi’s all-stars might join Starz’s Ash vs Evil Dead?