Last Fall, Ash vs Evil Dead premiered at New York Comic-Con. As they prep for the second season of the Starz network show, the cast and crew rolled into San Diego Comic-Con International this past weekend. The panel featured Evil Dead creators and show executive producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, as well as cast members Ted Raimi, Lucy Lawless (Ruby), Ray Santiago (Pablo), Dana DeLorenzo (Kelly), and of course Ash himself, Bruce Campbell.
Campbell introduces his special guest, Lee Majors, who will be joining the cast as Ash’s father. You can see the honest appreciation for the legendary actor in Campbell’s introduction.
Check out the video here below of the entire panel, as well as a list of some of its highlights.
Sam Raimi gives a quick season 1 recap and season 2 leaping point, with Ash comfortable and happy in Jacksonville after his deal with the devil. He has made strides in character development as he made sure to save his friends, but probably made the situation a lot darker in the process. His motto from Season 1 was “Act first, think never.” The first question went to Lee Majors on joining the cast. “It was a bloody good time,” the screen legend says.
Lucy Lawless discusses her role of Ruby and her arc in Season 2, and after being the villain of Season 1 she will join the gang. Campbell’s response, “I don’t trust Ruby as far as I can throw her, but I’ll take her gas money.”
Santiago and DeLorenzo are asked about being relative rookies amongst the giants in the cast, and they are adorable, saying they’re just excited to be there and basically speechless. After saying nice things about Campbell, he gets up and drops them some cash, so of course the shower of compliments continues.
Campbell and Raimi shower the Starz network with compliments, with Campbell saying that Starz gave them ZERO content restrictions, whereas if this were a film, it would’ve been tweaked with to make the rated-R standards.
Discussing Ash’s relationship with his father — seriously you can’t help but be awe of the amazing casting job, as Majors and Campbell side by side could totally pass as father and son — “We were both born with hair on our chests,” Campbell says with his arm around Majors’ shoulders. “I watched the first one, then the second one, then all ten in a row. I never saw someone chainsaw people in half and spout these funny lines,” Majors said about AVED.
Sam Raimi said the intensity has been upped for Season 2 and thanks Starz again for giving them free reign, saying of the network, “They want to produce content you can’t find anywhere else.”
Raimi talks about how important it is to have a strong support structure, noting Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell as real friends who picked him up when he was down. Campbell is asked about playing the “anti-hero” and he said he loves it. He says the conventional hero is “snooze-ville.” He says anti-heroes get better incrementally and then tells the crowd to push for Starz to greenlight Seasons 3 AND 4 to and pay the subscription fee to Starz’s streaming service. While he sounds like he’s shamelessly pitching, he admits the world of TV works by ratings and how many subscribers these services have. One thing that is undeniable, Bruce Campbell is NOT sick of playing Ash and will gleefully play him till the end of time.
When a 10-year old asks a questions, Bruce tells the kids parents “What’s wrong you, you wanna raise a serial killer?” He then invites the kid over, hands him a twenty, and tells him to get a job at the library. How can anyone not love Bruce F’N Campbell?
In one of the best questions I or Lucy Lawless have ever heard asked an a Comic-Con panel, a man asks Raimi, Tapert and Campbell what the culinary equivalent is to Ash’s soul”¦ the panel decides, ass monkeys is a good answer. A little girl asks Campbell, “What peaked his interest about playing Ash,” to which he replied that it NEVER peaked his interest, he just made a movie a long time ago and that’s all anyone ever remembers about his career! I was almost in tears laughing at that response.
As you can probably tell, I love the Evil Dead franchise. I was thrilled to be in the front for the Ash vs Evil Dead panel at NYCC in the Fall and this was as much fun as that. You have over 40 years of friendship and hard work on that stage. And Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo are just perfect to continue the legacy going forward.
Ash vs Evil Dead is available on Starz and if you subscribe to Amazon Prime, you can add Starz for only $8.99 a month. Do it now to watch Season 2 and help ensure that they can make Seasons 3 and 4. Ash vs Evil Dead Season 2 returns to Starz this Fall.
Video
Ash vs Evil Dead | 2016 San Diego Comic-Con Panel | STARZ
Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo, Ted Raimi, Lee Majors, Lucy Lawless, and Bruce Campbell take the San Diego Comic-Con stage for a bloody good time, moderated by Dominic Patten.
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