The Latest Evil Dead Franchise Announcement Has Me Even More Excited For Evil Dead Burn

The Evil Dead franchise has always been popular with horror fans since Sam Raimi’s cult classic original debuted. However, it was given new life with the massively popular Evil Dead Rise in 2023, which was a critical and box office smash hit. This summer, the highly-anticipated next chapter, Evil Dead Burn, will terrorize theaters across the globe under the guidance of director Sébastien Vaniček (Infested).

As exciting as the impending release date is, there’s even more reason for Evil Dead fans to get hyped up for the next appearance of the Deadites. Deadline (no pun intended) reported that the entry after the upcoming Evil Dead Burn has already begun its casting process, and will move forward with Francis Galluppi (The Last Stop In Yuma County) at the helm.

While no title has been announced yet, seven actors and actresses have already been confirmed to join the movie, each of which is a newcomer to the franchise. That’s great news for the franchise as a whole, but it’s even more exciting for those ready to watch Evil Dead Burn in just a few months.

Confidence Must Be High In Evil Dead Burn

If New Line Cinema, Sony, and Warner Bros. already have their eyes set on the next installment in the ever-growing saga of the Necronomicons and the demonic Deadites, their confidence has to be sky-high for the quality of Evil Dead Burn. It’s fairly rare for studios to be this deep into planning a franchise film that far ahead, even one that is low-priority when compared to major tentpole blockbusters.

The Evil Dead franchise has historically been produced on minimal budgets, although the last two installments’ production budgets came in well over $10 million. Despite the relatively low investment required, it seems reasonable to think that none of the studios involved in the financing and production of the franchise would be willing to go that deep into development on another entry without being supremely confident in Evil Dead Burn.

Evil Dead and Evil Dead Rise eschewed some of the campier elements of the early franchise entries in favor of more straight-line demonic horror and gore, and audiences (and critics) have responded well. Evil Dead Burn will likely continue that trend with more high-quality horror if the franchise’s swift progression is any indication.

Evil Dead Movies Aren’t Necessarily Dependent On Each Other

A woman floats on water in Evil Dead Rise

When compared to more traditional franchises, the Evil Dead series of movies is far less reliant on continuity. There are common threads, and “rules” for how the Deadites operate, how they are summoned, and how they can be killed. Except for Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams, none of the protagonists that have battled the Deadites have ever returned for a second installment, which looks to be the case once again for Evil Dead Burn.

As a result, there is nothing stopping two Evil Dead movies from being in production at the same time. The modern iteration of the series is based upon providing different (hand-selected by Raimi and his collaborators) directors to offer their take on the Deadites, with fresh casts, settings, and Books of the Dead to trigger the dastardly events of each movie.

That fact makes the early casting somewhat less surprising, but it should still inspire confidence in Evil Dead Burn. The financial commitment may never be significant, but the studios all have to be confident that the upcoming entry will maintain the audience’s interest in the franchise.