MCT28
Loud Mouth Braggart
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2023
2023 was a surprisingly eventful year for the Evil Dead franchise, and with 2024 right around the corner, I thought it would be neat to take a look back at everything that happened with horror's grooviest series over the course of the past 365 days (in order):
- The officially licensed Ash Williams skin (based on his appearance in Evil Dead 2) made a surprise return to the shops of the battle-royal video game Fortnite, having previously been exclusive for a limited-time Halloween event in October of 2022. The fan-favorite later returned in October of 2023.
- Evil Dead: The Game really kicked things off on February 2nd with the "Immortal Power" DLC bundle, which saw the long-awaited addition of Ruby (with Lucy Lawless reprising the role), some costumes, and the "Splatter Royal" game mode.
- On February 18th, images and details about a scrapped sequel to the game Evil Dead: Hail To The King surface online. Originally entitled Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dearborn, the game would eventually change developers and get overhauled into Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick.
- On February 19th, the Army of Darkness film celebrated the 30th anniversary of it's United States release.
- In March, horror-themed apparel and accessory company Fright Rags releases their Army of Darkness 30th Anniversary Collection. The company would continue roll out more merchandise based on The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Evil Dead Rise throughout the year.
- On April 5th, Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead celebrated it's 10th anniversary.
- Much like Fright Rags, the other horror apparel company Cavity Colors released a surge of Evil Dead merchandise throughout the year, staring off with an all-new Evil Dead Rise line on April 14th.
- On April 19th, the "Tome 15 - Ascension" DLC was released for survival horror game Dead By Daylight, which saw the release of a new costume for Ash Williams based on his appearance in the Ash vs Evil Dead Season Two episode "Ashy Slashy". Speaking of, Ashy Slashy (the puppet) was also added to the game with Jeremy Dillon returning to voice the character for a short narrated text story, and Ash also got several all-new voice lines from Bruce Campbell.
- Three years since it's announcement, surviving a global pandemic, a cooperate merger, unpredictable tax write-offs, and spared the fate of being a direct-to-streaming film, Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise is released in theaters on April 21st, 2023. Met with critical acclaim and bringing in a grand total of $146.7 million at the box office, Evil Dead Rise became the highest-grossing film in the series.
- On April 26th, Evil Dead: The Game "Game of The Year" Edition is released, which allowed players access to all the previously released DLC packs, as well as the pre-order exclusive costumes. That same day also saw the release of the "Whose Your Daddy?" DLC bundle, which brought in Ash vs Evil Dead's Brock Williams and Baal as playable characters.
- A little over a month after Evil Dead Rise hits theaters, Lee Cronin begins a Twitter thread sharing tons of behind the scenes photographs and videos from the production to make up for the lack of special features on the home media releases of the film. After a hiatus, Cronin resumes posting behind the scenes material for every day in October.
- On August 25th, Dynamite Entertainment and Lynnvander Studios announces that the long-awaited Army of Darkness The Board Game, first announced all the way back in 2018, would finally release on November 29th, 2023. November 29th came and went with no game on shelves, and a new release date of February, 2024 was announced.
- On September 7th, the official Evil Dead Rise haunted house opens at Universal Studios Hollywood for their annual Halloween Horror Nights event. The attraction had actually been built for the 2022 event, but had to be rethemed at the last minute when the Evil Dead Rise film delayed it's release.
- After months of silence and rampant fan-speculation, Saber Interactive officially announced that they were no longer continuing development on new content for Evil Dead: The Game on September 19th.
- Pre-order sales went live on October 2nd for the officially licensed Magic: The Gathering cards based on The Evil Dead as part of "Spookydrop 2023".
- On October 11th, Dynamite Entertainment kicks-off their celebration of the 30th anniversary of Army of Darkness with the release of the first issue of a new comic book series entitled Army of Darkness Forever. This series bridges together the events of the post-apocalyptic "Director's Cut" ending of the film, as well as the S-Mart "Theatrical Cut" ending.
- October 23rd saw the Evil Dead 2 version of Ash Williams join Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 as part of the game's "The Haunting" event. Bruce Campbell reprised his iconic role of Ash for the game (with Campbell having previously worked on the Call of Duty franchise with the Exo Zombies game in 2014).
- On October 28th, Sideshow announces they've aquired the license to create a new series of collectables based on Evil Dead 2, though no actual products are mentioned in the announcement.
- November 9th: While Dynamite's Army of Darkness Board Game got delayed, Lynnvander Studios launched a Kickstarter campaign to re-release their sold-out Evil Dead 2: The Board Game as a special "Deluxe Edition" for fans who missed out on the original release, with minor adjustments and new game modes added to the rulebook, as well as an all-new game board. The campaign blew past their $45,000 goal in 24 hours, and closed the campaign on December 8th with a total of $239,764.
- November 20th: after showing off an impressive Army of Darkness Ash statue at San Diego Comic-Con earlier in the year, Syndicate Collectibles reveals the first officially licensed full-sized chainsaw hand prop replica (based on it's appearance in Army of Darkness), set for release in 2024.