If you still had hopes Bruce Campbell may return to ‘Evil Dead’ as Ash Williams, you can go ahead and take a boomstick to such ideas.
It has been a few years since Bruce Campbell announced his retirement as Evil Dead‘s Ash Williams. Still, with rumors of an animated revival in the works, there was hope that the actor would return to voice the iconic character. But we can officially put the last nail in the coffin of those hopes.
During a recent interview with Screenrant, Campbell confirmed as resoundingly as he could that he will not play Ash again. “Ash is done,” said the actor.
Doesn’t get any clearer than that, does it?
Campbell went on to reveal that he will “not [be] going to do any animated voice work” for the character to return, offering that any animated projects “can get Joe Ash soundalike. There are ways to [recreate my voice] now.”
I don’t blame Campbell whatsoever for wanting to hang it up as Ash. He played the character for nearly five decades, appearing in the first three Evil Dead films as well as the Ash vs. Evil Dead series that ran for three glorious seasons before Starz pulled the plug. I’m still a little mad about that…
With Campbell announcing his cancer diagnosis a while back, it more than makes sense for Bruce to focus on other projects that he’s passionate about.
The comment that his voice can be recreated now, while accurate, is pretty bleak. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a future where actors’ voices are used for ads, shows, and films- you name it- without their consent. The whole thing screams “hollow dystopia” to me. But, as Campbell says, that’s where we’re at.
So, if you were hoping for one final return to Ash from Campbell, you can go ahead and take a boomstick to those hopes. But don’t be sad. Instead, relish the fact that we got those iconic performances from Bruce in the first place. He may not return to Evil Dead, but we can return to his work on Evil Dead whenever we like.
Groovy.
