As Arnold Schwarzenegger recently said – which has already become iconic – action heroes don’t retire, they reload. If that applies to the musclebound menaces of cinema, then what about horror icons? If Stephen King gets his way, then one of the most prominent won’t be calling it quits anytime soon.
Of course, there’s an air of self-deprecation to the announcement in question, seeing as it came from master of the deadpan Bruce Campbell. The Evil Dead legend recently celebrated turning 65 years old, and it was a moment for introspection. Naturally, there was panic gripping gorehounds everywhere when the actor hinted that he might be considering hanging up his chainsaw for good, and there were few more vocal in their desire to see the opposite happen than King himself.
As long as Sam Raimi continues making movies, Campbell is always going to have a job, so even if he wanted to retire it would be very unlikely that his longtime friend and regular collaborator would let him. Given Campbell’s penchant for mischief, misdirection, and often flat-out telling lies when being confronted with important questions, we’d wager that the number one enemy of Deadites everywhere has absolutely no plans to gracefully ride off into sunset.
If the unthinkable did happen, though, we do at least know that Stephen King would be more devastated than most, which is entirely fitting when you consider their shared status as indisputable legends of all things terrifying, regardless of the fact they achieved it through entirely different means.