After being one of the leads of the original show, Lucy Lawless is weighing in on her potential Ash vs Evil Dead animated revival and overall franchise return. Lawless starred in the TV expansion of Sam Raimi’s beloved horror franchise as Ruby Knowby, the daughter of the professor who discovered the Necronomicon, though had mysterious ties to the evil book’s origins and the demons within it. Having frequently survived her fights with Bruce Campbell’s Ash, Ruby was ultimately defeated by the Dark Ones in Ash vs Evil Dead season 3, which also marked the show’s final season after being cancelled by STARZ.
During a recent interview with Screen Rant to discuss her directorial debut with the acclaimed documentary Never Look Away, Lawless was asked about her thoughts on returning for the in-development Ash vs Evil Dead animated revival. The star began by recalling her consistent surprise at being brought back for the show, including her and Campbell’s frequent joking when they would reunite to film each season:
Oh, my God, Ruby. It’s like, “Honestly, who is Ruby?” became a joke on set, because Bruce [Campbell] and I would go, “What the hell am I doing here?” [Laughs] I’m like, “Did you make this role just to keep me in the country? What the hell is Ruby?” But I love hanging out with Bruce and Dana [DeLorenzo] and Ray [Santiago]. Bruce is family.
In looking to her potential return in the future, Lawless didn’t explicitly answer an offer one way or another. She did, however, confirm that the previously announced Evil Dead movies are not only moving forward, but that the “major sticking point” in some legal paperwork is “ironing itself out“, and that the movies should be coming out in the very near future. See the rest of what Lawless shared below:
So, what I can tell you is that there will be a couple more Evil Dead movies. There was a major sticking point in the legal paperwork that had to be worked through, but looks like that’s ironing itself out, and I think we can expect a couple more movies in the next couple of years.
What This Means For The Evil Dead Franchise’s Future
Lawless’ Ruby May Be Done, But The Series Isn’t Slowing Down
Though her comments may not confirm one way or another whether she’ll be back, it does seem likely Lawless’ Ruby won’t be back for the animated Ash vs Evil Dead revival. The penultimate episode of the original show saw her and the Sorceress Kaya’s souls claimed by the Dark Ones, likely taken to the Netherworld, the franchise’s depiction of Hell, and imprisoned forever. With the series finale’s cliffhanger jumping to a post-apocalyptic future, however, it can also be explained that Ruby escaped Hell amid the rest of the chaos involving Kandar the Destroyer.
Regardless of what the future holds for her, however, Lawless’ confirmation that the next two Evil Dead movies are moving forward is sure to come as an assuring update. Following the success of 2023’s Evil Dead Rise, the first standalone installment in the franchise, it was announced earlier this year that two more standalone movies were in the works, including one directed and co-written by Infested‘s Sébastien Vaniček and another written and directed by The Last Stop in Yuma County‘s Francis Galluppi.
Lawless has been married to Evil Dead franchise producer Rob Tapert since 1998 after working together on Xena: Warrior Princess, which he co-created.
Lawless’ note of a sticking point in the legal paperwork does raise some curiosity as to how that will impact the next two Evil Dead movies. While Raimi and Tapert have held onto the rights of the franchise as a whole, nearly every installment has been distributed by a different studio, with Army of Darkness produced and released by Universal Pictures, while the 2013 rebootquel was released by Sony and Rise by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. Therefore, it is feasible that either Vaniček or Galluppi want to connect their movies to prior stories, and therefore needed to work through some rights issues.
It Could Rival Another Horror Franchise
While it’s still unclear just when the next two Evil Dead movies will get off the ground, the possibility of them coming out over the next couple of years could start to establish the franchise as a rival to the likes of Saw and The Conjuring Universe. The Jigsaw-focused series was memorable for releasing a new movie yearly around the Halloween season, while there was a solid period of time in which the James Wan-created interconnected universe similarly released a new film each year. With the shift to focusing on standalone titles, a new Evil Dead movie could feasibly come out every year.
As for the long-gestating animated Ash vs Evil Dead revival, I’m certainly still hopeful it will one day get made and bring Campbell back as his iconic character, though I’d love to see Lawless get to play a new character. The franchise has seen other actors play multiple roles, including Ted Raimi, and I think it’d even be great to see Lawless play someone with her natural New Zealand accent, permitted they are just as strong as Ruby.
