Former Xena: Warrior Princess Lucy Lawless is back big time recently. Next month, she’ll be joining the cast of WGN America’s Salem as a recurring guest star, and today Starz announced that the actress will be joining the cast of its new series Ash vs Evil Dead, premiering later this year.
Ash vs Evil Dead is a follow-up to the Evil Dead horror film franchise, with original star Bruce Campbell headlining the series, reprising his role as Ash and serving as co-executive producer. Lawless will play Ruby, a mysterious figure who is myopic in her quest to hunt down the source of recent Deadite outbreaks. The problem is that she believes Ash is the cause of it all.
The series re-teams Lawless with executive producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, with whom she previously worked on the Xena series, as well as Spartacus. Besides Campbell and Lawless, cast members in the series include Ray Santiago (as Pablo Simon Bolivar), Dana DeLorenzo (Kelly Maxwell) and Jill Marie Jones (Amanda Fisher).
According to Starz, Ash vs Evil Dead will be 10 half-hour episodes. The series will film in New Zealand this spring, with Sam Raimi, who helmed the original feature films, co-writing and directing the first episode.
Ash vs Evil Dead plot description from Starz:
“Bruce Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons – personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its ‘Evil’ grip.”
UPDATE 4/2/15: Starz released this teaser trailer for Ash vs Evil Dead:
