Developer Saber Interactive is bringing back cast members from 1981’s original Evil Dead movie for its upcoming take on the cult horror franchise, the fittingly titled Evil Dead: The Game.
The game was announced at The Game Awards in December 2020, with an extended – and gory – trailer shown at the Summer Game Fest in June 2021. Original series lead actor Bruce Campbell was always attached to reprise his iconic role of Ash Williams, the hapless hero who finds himself battling unstoppable “Deadites” over the course of the film series and the recent Ash vs Evil Dead TV show, but now it appears more of his original co-stars are returning for the game.
Campbell himself seems to have snuck out the announcement, in an interview with The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley (as spotted by PCGamesN) where he reveals that both Ellen Sandweiss, who played Ash’s sister Cheryl Williams, and Richard DeManincor, Ash’s friend Scotty, will be making appearances in Evil Dead: The Game.
Campbell said that having the original actors lend their voices to the game gives it “that much more street cred” than trying to find soundalike actors to play the characters.
“That’s how much we love our fans,” Campbell added, “you go that extra mile for them so that they’ll shut up!”
Campbell’s screen mates from Ash vs Evil Dead, Ray Santiago (played by Pablo Bolivar) and Dana DeLorenzo (Kelly Maxwell) were previously announced as appearing. The game will see teams of four survivors battling zombies while looting, crafting and exploring locations from across the franchise, all while hunting down pages from the Necronomicon.
Evil Dead: The Game was intended to launch this year, to mark the 40th anniversary of the original film. However, in August 2021, Saber announced a delay until February 2022. The extra time will be used “to implement a single-player option that will let you enjoy the game when you are without your co-op compadres.”
