This weekend saw Robert Tapert, Bruce Campbell and Fede Alvarez debut the nervously anticipated EVIL DEAD remake at Austin’s SXSW festival (encouragingly, to much acclaim!), and from these appearances came much talk of the franchise’s future…

First up, director Alvarez revealed that work on the sequel’s screenplay had already begun, “It’s not gonna be a remake of the second EVIL DEAD. It’s going to directly follow this one and is going to be a whole different story,” he told BloodyDisgusting. “I think it’s going to be more like the second half of this film. It’s going to be more over the top. The escalation is going to continue.” When Collider pressed the 29-year old filmmaker on EVIL DEAD 2, he told them: “I think it has to shock everybody. It has to go to a different place just like ARMY OF DARKNESS did with EVIL DEAD 2. It has to do that switch that every EVIL DEAD movie did with the previous one.”

I haven’t had the privilege of seeing EVIL DEAD (2013) yet, so I’m completely in the dark as to whether this is good news or bad! The following however, I’m all for…

When Sam Raimi revealed last week that he plans to start (shouldn’t that be “finish”?) writing EVIL DEAD 4 with co-writer Ivan Raimi this summer, we were highly skeptical. He’s said it many times before, as we’re all aware – even his long time buddy knows the score: “Sam threatens this every six months,” Bruce Campbell told the crowds at SXSW. “I’ve heard this a thousand times, because in the back of his mind, he never wants to let go, because he loved making these movies. They were a nightmare to make, very difficult, but they lasted the test of time, so he’s not going to let that go, and I’m never going to say ‘no.’ It’ll be me and a walker fighting some other old guy. But that’s what he does and who knows? It may happen.” Now the important thing to take from that, even though the statement is as non-committal as they come, is that Bruce seems at least ‘open’ to the idea. Given that this is a guy who was so sick of being asked about the possibility of a fourth movie, the home page of his official site greeted you with an audio clip of him repeating “THERE WILL BE NO EVIL DEAD 4!”. So at least that’s progress!

Raimi and Campbell’s co-producer Robert Tapert also weighed in on the rumours, clarifying that if the sequel goes ahead, then we should start referring to it as ARMY OF DARKNESS 2, and not EVIL DEAD 4. This of course addresses our concerns as to how the hell your regular non-movie geek audience member would distinguish the two franchises should they both be running concurrently.

Will EVIL DEAD 4, sorry, ARMY OF DARKNESS 2, ever happen? Once again, it’s all down to whether Ivan Raimi can persuade his brother to commit to finishing the script later this year. If they manage to do that, it looks like the rest could very well fall into place quite easily…

Fede Alvarez’s EVIL DEAD hits UK cinemas April 19th. 

Question: Should ARMY OF DARKNESS 2 happen? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @STARBURST_MAG

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