According To The Stars Of ‘Ash V. Evil Dead’, Season 3 Is All About Destiny, Legacy, And Breaking Ash

Most shows have benefited from premium cable’s more relaxed standards, but few shows see those standards as a personal challenge the way that Ash v. Evil Dead seems to. Since 2015, the Bruce Campell and Lucy Lawless horror comedy has pushed the envelope on what its viewers can stomach in a way that’s both funny and reverent to Sam Raimi‘s original source material. However, even the most die-hard fans likely aren’t prepared for the ambition of Ash v. Evil Dead‘s third season.

If it was possible to take this consistently over-the-top show to the next level, that’s what this new season does. The fights are more brutal, the gags are grosser, the characters are bolder, and the show is gleefully willing to breakdown and rebuild itself in a way that it’s never done before. As is the case with all seasons of Ash v. Evil Dead, there’s nothing quite like it on television. Ahead of its Season 3 premiere on STARZ, Decider had the opportunity to talk to series regulars Bruce Campbell and Dana DeLorenzo as well as the actor behind one of Season 3’s new major characters, Lindsay Farris.

“This is an unusual season because there’s going to be some mythology payoff,” series producer and franchise star Bruce Campbell said. “There will be periods spent in limbo this season. There will be time spent in perhaps a different time period this season.”

If there’s one major theme tying together this new season, that theme would be the mythology of Evil Dead. “Why Ash? Why is he chosen? Why the average man? And the bigger question, how will he win?” he said. “Not knowing how many how many seasons we’ll be on the air, as producers we wanted to give people a satisfying ending regardless of what happens. So we think Season 3 is a pretty kickass ending.”

This season will also show Ash in a way he’s never been seen before — as a broken hero. “This season he’s going to break. He’s going to snap,” Campbell teased. But it’s not all terrible. “You’ve gotta break your characters down before you build them back up.”

Exploring the mythology in an in-depth way is something the Evil Dead franchise has never done until now, which is partially what makes this new season so fascinating. “The first Evil Dead was never supposed to have a sequel, and since it became a reluctant franchise, a lot of this information is new to all of us of how to do this. Sam Raimi has the broad strokes of creating the characters, the myth, the book, the guy — the hero who falls from the sky. So now we just have to pay it off,” he said.

The main person responsible for delivering this payoff would be Mark Verheiden, Season 3’s showrunner. “Mark has a lot of experience in sci-fi and he loves the big story,” he said. Campbell credits Verheiden for the inclusion of Ash’s daughter this season. “I think he was lobbying for the family [plot line] because if you have a daughter, now you have lineage. So she can be a female Ash at some point for all we know.”

As teased in January, Ash learns that he has a long-lost daughter named Brandy (Arielle Carver-O’Neill) this season. “He’s a bad father. Not malicious, but incredibly inexperienced, he’s too self-centered,” Campbell said. “He has to go from survival mode back into mentor mode. In this case, at one point he says, ‘Look, I know I’m a crappy father, but I’m also a crappy liar. Everything I tell you is true.’”

The inclusion of Brandy also brings Ash’s role as the chosen one into question. “Is [Brandy] destined to be some queen badass? Does Ash train her?” he said. “We didn’t go full Obi-Wan — it’s not that type of thing. You can see where it can go by the end of the season. She becomes very capable.”

But just because Ash is getting a new sidekick that doesn’t mean its old ones are getting less screen time. “With Pablo and Kelly this year, they both have more stuff to do,” he said. “Kelly [Dana DeLorenzo] will be kind of a little bit more of her own badass. Pablo [Ray Santiago], you know, is related to a Brujo. He’s going to become more valuable in deciphering Kandarian writings and visions and he can kind of help us figure out what’s going on.”

But when it comes to the punishing fights of the show, Season 3 is business as usual. Campbell opened up about his appreciation for his stunt double. Campbell met Raicho Vasilev in Bulgaria when they were working on Man with the Screaming Brain. “As I get into my golden years, there’s no way I’m going to do half the crap I did when I was 21,” he said. “He comes in, and they beat the crap out of him, and I stand up and dust myself off. It’s great.”

“I’ll hear a huge crash across the set [of Ash], and I’ll see him limping back across, and I’ll yell, ‘Raicho! How’d it go?’ And he’ll shout back, ‘Fuck this shit, boss!’ But he’s always very respectful, so it’s fine,” Campbell said. “He refers to me as his dialogue double.”

When it comes to epic showdowns in this new season, DeLorenzo teased a major one for her character. “[Kelly’s experience] has been a very similar experience to my own experience getting into this franchise where I was sort of dropped into it head first,” she said.

Working on this show, DeLorenzo revealed that she’s crossed a lot off her acting bucket list, from getting possessed to working with and later fighting a puppet. However, it’s Kelly’s growth that DeLorenzo is the most excited about now. “She finally forges her own path the way that Good Ruby [Lucy Lawless] — the one that was killed by the 1980s Ruby — that we see in Season 3,” she said.

Kelly’s intense, emotionally-charged battle comes in Episode 6. “Kelly gets her moment of revenge, and she’s changed forever in the process, and if I dare say loses a bit of herself, for better or for worse,” DeLorenzo said. She also teased that big battle is “reminiscent of the deli slicer.” “She goes ballistic.”

Every Ash actor has to put up with their share of vomit-worthy things, and DeLorenzo is no different. From being force fed blood by her co-star to almost eating possibly real leeches, there have been some gag-worthy moments in Kelly’s past, and Season 3 is no different. “All I can say that my grossest moment is right around a rock star moment,” she teased.

But there was a spoiler DeLorenzo was able to give — her brother makes a cameo this season. “There’s a dance scene,” she said. “He’s the one who looks like me.”

Also, for any fan hoping that Kelly and Pablo will get together this season, there is hope. “Body parts definitely will touch,” DeLorenzo said of their relationship. A big shift in the pair’s relationship comes because of  the introduction of Dalton (Lindsay Farris), one of the Knights of Sumeria. “Pablo gets a little jelly, which is fine because Kelly got a little jelly in Season 1. But you know, Pablo doesn’t trust Dalton, Dalton doesn’t trust Pablo, but there comes a point where everything gets put on a line,” DeLorenzo said. “Kelly thinks it’s the last moment, and it may be, so she ends up going for it. How that turns out, you have to see.”

Speaking of Dalton, the introduction of Farris’ character changes the mythology of this show permanently. “The last time we saw the Knights of Sumeria was in the original film franchise, which was 20 years ago,” Farris said. When the Knights first appeared in Army of Darkness, they were using spears and horses. Ash‘s version of the Knights have evolved to using motorcycles and shotguns.

Farris plays an ambitious knight and born fighter who has grown up with stories about Ash’s bravery. “The key issue is that Dalton has had some of these key lessons passed down verbally and through writing, but he’s never really had an opportunity to practice them,” he explained. “He’s like a brain surgeon who’s read all the books but has never had to cut a head open.”

“Dalton’s kind of a fan boy,” DeLorenzo added. “I think Ash needs that. Like, ‘Look you can drink as many beers as you want, but you are here to do something. You’re the only guy to do it, and you’ve got to face it.’”

That’s the truth, for better or for worse.

Season 3 of Ash v. Evil Dead premieres on STARZ Sunday February 25 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Stream Ash v. Evil Dead on STARZ