Filming is well underway on the next Evil Dead movie, titled Evil Dead Rise and going straight to HBO Max. Produced by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, Evil Dead Rise is set up at New Line Cinema, and in the director’s chair is Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground).

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Campbell teases today that Evil Dead Rise – which will not feature his character Ash Williams, sorry – is a “book-centric” Evil Dead, suggesting that the only real connection to the stories we know and love is the Necronomicon.

Campbell explains, “­People can actually call it what [they] want: Sequel, remake, reimagining. It really is just another Evil Dead movie. It’s book-centric. It’s all about [the Necronomicon]. Where does this book wind up and what happens to it over the millennia?”

“In this case, it’s set in the city, it’s no more cabin in the woods,” he continues. “It’s entirely different, unsuspecting heroines who are going to save the day. It’s filming now in New Zealand, with some of their amazing crews down there and they’re well into it. Rob Tapert is the hands-on producer and we’re all very involved in the script. We all jump in at various times to chime in.”

“But, yeah, the three of us are very involved,” Campbell adds. 

Gabrielle Echols (Reminiscence), Morgan Davies (The End) and Nell Fisher (Splendid Isolation) have joined a cast that also includes Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan.

Variety details, “The next chapter in the saga builds off the original trilogy, rather than the 2013 reboot. Evil Dead Rise moves the action out of the woods and into the city. The twisted tale centers on two estranged sisters, portrayed by Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan, whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.”