Summary

• The Evil Dead franchise is expanding with a sixth movie.
• The Evil Dead movie is a spinoff, not a sequel, expanding the franchise as an anthology series.
• The anthology approach allows the Evil Dead franchise to tell separate stories with different characters and Deadites, without being tied to a connected universe.

The Evil Dead franchise.

After Ash Williams’ (Bruce Campbell) adventures in The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness, the universe of The Evil Dead was brought back to life in 2013 with a soft reboot directed by Fede Álvarez. Evil Dead 2013 was the first movie without Ash Williams, and a decade later, the franchise was rebooted again with Evil Dead Rise, directed by Lee Cronin. Thanks to the success of Evil Dead Rise, a new movie is now in development, but it’s avoiding a big mistake horror movies have been making recently.

The New Evil Dead Movie Is A Spinoff, Not A Sequel

The Evil Dead franchise is expanding with a sixth movie, but it’s not a sequel to Evil Dead Rise nor any other movie in the series. In February 2024, a new Evil Dead movie was announced to be in development, and it’s being described as a spinoff. The sixth Evil Dead movie will be directed and co-written by Sébastien Vaniček. Sam Raimi will still be involved in this new project, though as a producer, along with production partner Robert Tapert, via their company Ghost House Pictures.

Although Evil Dead Rise left the door open for a sequel as the evil force found a new victim, it’s better if the next movie is a spinoff instead of a sequel. Unlike other horror reboots, such as Halloween and Scream, the Evil Dead franchise opted for reviving this universe with new stories with the elements that make these movies part of the franchise, rather than with continuations to the previous movies. This was a big part of the success of Evil Dead Rise, as it didn’t depend on Ash Williams or what the 2013 reboot established, and simply used the Necronomicon, the evil force, and the Deadites to tell a whole new story.

The Evil Dead Franchise Is Becoming An Anthology (& That’s A Good Thing)

With the sixth Evil Dead movie being a spinoff instead of a sequel, the Evil Dead franchise is, essentially, becoming an anthology one. The only movies that follow a continuity are the first three, though Evil Dead II retconned a couple of elements from the first movie. Contrary to what the title suggests, Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead isn’t a remake of Raimi’s original movie, though it borrowed the same setting and premise, but with different characters and Deadites. Evil Dead Rise was a story of its own with no ties to Ash Williams or Mia Allen, so the Evil Dead franchise is already an anthology one.

Being an anthology movie series allows the Evil Dead franchise to expand more, as each movie will tell a separate story with different characters and a variety of Deadites, and these don’t necessarily have to be part of a connected universe. Plot and character details of the new Evil Dead movie are still unknown, so it’s to be seen how similar it is to Evil Dead Rise or any other movie in the series, as well as who will be the new hero and their weapon of choice, whether the legendary chainsaw or something else.