The Old Chainsaw Has Been Hung Up

Summary

• Bruce Campbell has retired from playing Ash in the Evil Dead franchise but will continue to be involved as a producer.
• Campbell is entering a new phase of his career as a host and has already hosted shows like Ripley’s Believe It or Not and a game show.
• Despite retiring Ash, Campbell plans to continue making movies and writing books, with a new movie scheduled to be made in Oregon.

Bruce Campbell has worked as an actor, producer, and even a director. Still, he’s best known for playing the chainsaw wielding character, Ash Williams in the Sam Rami-created Evil Dead franchise.

Campbell first tackled the role of Ash with the 1981 film, The Evil Dead, before returning to reprise the character in the movie sequels, 1987’s Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn and 1992’s Army of Darkness. Campbell also played Ash for three seasons of the Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead, which ran from 2015 to 2018.

During an exclusive chat with MovieWeb, Campbell discussed his new series Discontinued, created for Ryan Reynolds’ new Maximum Effort Channel. The star also spoke about how he’s retired from playing his character Ash in the Evil Dead franchise, noting that he still plans to continue producing films, and how he’s in a new stage of his career, but intends to start making independent films. Campell said:

“I’ve remained a producer, and was one of the producers on the recent one, which made the most money of any Evil Dead movie ever made. So I’ll always stay involved as a producer. But as an actor, the old chainsaw has been hung up.”

Some residents of Southern California may have even spotted Campbell in-person at Universal Studios’ annual Halloween Horror Nights a few years prior. Campbell noted, “That was a lot of fun. That was Ash’s swan song. It was his last hey-day, his last hurrah.”

RELATED: Exclusive: Bruce Campbell Talks Hosting New Series Discontinued for Ryan Reynolds’ Channel

Bruce Campbell Says He’s “Entering the Hosting Phase of My Career”

Campbell added, “I did a brief stint on Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and I’ve hosted a game show. So I’m entering the hosting phase of my career. I don’t fight dead guys [in Evil Dead films] anymore. I’m in nice, air-conditioned studios.”

While Campbell has seemingly retired his Evil Dead character, Ash, he still plans to continue making movies and writing books. He added:

“I’m going to make a new movie in the spring in my lovely state of Oregon. It’s time to make movies again […] And I’ve been an actor for hire for a long time, and I’m a producer for hire, and it’s time to just go back and make cool little movies. Again, it’s way easier now to make low-budget movies with the equipment and all that sort of stuff. So I’m rolling up the sleeves and getting back at it.”

Back in 2021, while speaking with Collider, Campbell said, “I’m done playing Ash, so that determines a lot of where we go with the franchise without that character, but there are more stories. We’re doing it book-focused these days. That darn book gets around, and that’s how we play it. That book wound up in an urban environment with a single mom, so let’s see what happens. It’s fun to fiddle with it. There’s not gonna be any traditional form of Evil Dead anymore. Ash is gone. I’ve retired the character because I physically just can’t do him anymore, so why bother?”

The Evil Dead

Release Date September 10, 1981

Director Sam Raimi

Cast Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly, Philip A. Gillis

Rating R

Runtime 85

Genres Horror

Writers Sam Raimi

While Campbell may have said goodbye to Ash for good, he admitted that he’s since started to miss the character. On Twitter (aka X), Campbell retweeted a fan post declaring how much they missed the actor’s character and revealed that he missed Ash as well, saying, “I’m startin’ to miss him too, just a little bit…”

Fans of Campbell can catch the star hosting Discontinued. The new series will debut on Thursday, November 30, on Fubo via the Maximum Effort Channel.

You can view the original article HERE.