In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise (read our review right HERE) in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. Last year, they proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Sébastien Vaniček, who made his feature directorial debut on the French horror film Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, to write and direct a new installment in the franchise, which is going by the title Evil Dead Burn. Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema will be giving the film a theatrical release on July 24, 2026 – and with that date swiftly approaching, attendees at the CinemaCon Warner Bros. panel were shown a preview that made this one look like it could be the most violent Evil Dead movie to date!
New Line Cinema and Sony Pictures are co-financing the film, which Vaniček is directing from a screenplay he wrote with Florent Bernard. Sony will distribute internationally, with Canal Plus distributing in the UK and Metropolitan distributing in France.
Details on the story Vaniček will be telling in Evil Dead Burn have been kept under wraps up to this point, but he has said that he has complete creative control on his Evil Dead movie, and intends to give it a French twist.
Sam Raimi made his feature directorial debut with the original The Evil Dead, which introduced Campbell as iconic hero Ash Williams. Ash returned for Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, and the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series, with Raimi directing the films and the first episode of the show. After seeing a short film directed by Fede Alvarez, the Evil Dead rights holders gave him the chance to make his feature directorial debut with the Ash-less 2013 Evil Dead. Then Lee Cronin was hired to make the Ash-less Evil Dead Rise based on the strength of his own feature debut, the 2019 film The Hole in the Ground. So Sébastien Vaniček being hired to make the next Evil Dead movie right after entering the feature world with Vermin / Infested is very on brand for this franchise.
Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn isn’t the only Evil Dead movie on the way. Two months after he was hired to make his movie, the rights holders also hired Francis Galluppi, who just made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, to write and direct his own Evil Dead flick, which is called Evil Dead Wrath. An animated series follow-up to Ash vs. Evil Dead is also in the works.
Dune: Part Two‘s Souheila Yacoub, a Swiss former rhythmic gymnast who won the Miss Suisse Romande beauty pageant before getting her acting career started, landed the lead role and has been joined in the cast by Hunter Doohan (Your Honor), Luciane Buchanan (The Night Agent), and Tandi Wright (Pearl).
JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray saw the CinemaCon preview and reports, “Looks like the most violent Evil Dead movie to date! Sadistic levels of blood, with a woman drinking hot candlewax, fingers being cut off. Looks larger scale than the others and seems to take place in more than one location. About a whole family cursed by the Necronomicon who are possessed one by one.“
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