After many rumors and much speculation about what form the project would ultimately end up taking, Evil Dead Rise has been confirmed for an exclusive HBO Max release, with the two lead roles also having been cast.
The fourth canonical installment in the franchise, and fifth overall if you include Fede Alvarez’s 2013 remake, has existed since around 2017 when creator and original director Sam Raimi announced he was writing a new Evil Dead. At that stage, Bruce Campbell was still slated to return as Ash, but as per the latest report, that’s no longer the case, although he is listed as one of the executive producers, so a brief cameo can’t completely be ruled out.
Evil Dead Rise will tell the story of two estranged sisters looking to reconnect who find their reunion cut short and interrupted by the Deadites, forcing them into a deadly and dangerous battle for survival. Alyssa Sutherland, who starred in the first four seasons of Vikings and Netflix’s episodic adaptation of The Mist will play the older sibling, with Lily Sullivan signing on to portray the other lead.
Lee Cronin hopped on board to direct in June of last year, and he’s also pulling double duty by writing the script, with Raimi remaining involved on the producorial side of things. A streaming-only release is a little bit of a surprise, but The Evil Dead hasn’t really ascended beyond cult classic territory to puncture the mainstream in the last 40 years, so you can understand why Warner Bros. subsidiary New Line Cinema have made the decision. In any case, shooting kicks off next month in New Zealand, so we could realistically be seeing Evil Dead Rise towards the end of 2022.