Jason Vorhees is cool. Freddy Krueger is cool. Ash Williams is extremely cool. So tossing all three of them into the same film and letting them bloodily duke it out sounds like the badass monster mash of the century. With that in mind, we have to ask, why did it never happen?
After all, 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason tore up the box office upon its release and neither character is any stranger to chronic sequelitis. Indeed, for the longest time, it was rumored the Ash vs. Jason vs. Freddy was on the brink of being greenlit, only for it to disappear back into development hell. But with Bruce Campbell now headlining Ash vs. Evil Dead over on Starz, many have wondered if it’d be possible for Freddy and/or Jason – or both! – to one day appear on the show and possibly give us the crossover we’ve always dreamed of.
In fact, MovieWeb recently asked the actor that very question and unfortunately, he squashed our hopes, firmly denying that it will ever come to fruition.
“I hate to break your little fanboy bubble, but that will never happen,” said Campbell.
There is some good news to come out of this, though, as the outlet then asked Bruce if perhaps Robert Englund or Kane Hodder would ever cameo. Not necessarily as Freddy or Jason, respectively, but perhaps in another role. Just so fans could see the three actors share the screen together. To this idea, Campbell seemed much more receptive, saying:
“Those actors, they’re both pals of mine. Robert Englund I see all the time. Kane Hodder is a real sweetheart. He just put out his book. So yeah, as an actor? Like, have Robert Englund play a bitchy hotel clerk, you know? Something like that. So, maybe! We could do that. Sure, why not.”
That certainly sounds promising, but as MovieWeb points out, it may never happen, as Ash vs. Evil Dead could be coming to an end soon due to low ratings. Though the original plan was for five seasons, rumor has it that Starz may pull the plug after season 3, which just kicked off.
Campbell knows this, too, and admitted the cast and crew are acting as if this season is the last, before promising that fans will definitely walk away happy with how things wrap up if it is.
“Fans need to be a little worried. Because it’s a fickle word out there. And people have a lot of choices. You never know when your going to get the axe. The most important thing of season 3, we wanted to make sure, if that was going to be it for us…Because, again, you never now…And I’ve been on shows that got canceled in the off season.
And that’s a very unfortunate situation. You can’t wrap things up. We’re acting like Season 3 is it. For us. Story wise. So, if it only goes three seasons, I hope the fans will walk away very happy. With a tummy full of yummy stuff.”
So, we may never get to see Bruce Campbell, Robert Englund and Kane Hodder share the screen together, and we’ll definitely never get to see them all as their iconic characters duking it out on Ash vs. Evil Dead. But if you want an idea of what could have been, a Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash comic book miniseries was released in 2007 and though it’s not comparable to what the movie, or even a crossover on television could deliver, we still recommend checking it out.