Plus: Intel from Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell

Ash vs Evil Dead: Bruce Campbell back as Ash in exclusive first image

Give him some sugar, baby, because Ash has returned after a 22-year-haitus from fighting deadites. And we’ve got your first groovy image of Bruce Campbell back as Ash right here.

Yep, Campbell will once again be playing everyone’s favorite dim-witted warrior when Starz resurrects the Evil Dead franchise this fall with 10 episodes of Ash vs Evil Dead. As you can tell from the image above, Ash (who is still a stock boy) is once again ready to face his demons, and this time he’s got two folks to help him get the job done in fellow Value Stop employees Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo), seen above.

So what has Ash been up to for the past two decades? “Not much!” says Campbell. “He was perfectly happy doing basically nothing: telling lies about how he lost his hand in bars late at night. That was basically his MO. So, he’s not really the guy who should be dealing with this right now. But…he is. He’s our guy!”

He’s also the guy who yet again is accidently responsible for unleashing the evil dead back upon the world. “He’s the only one stupid enough to really tamper with those spirits,” says Sam Raimi, who directed the first episode of the new series. “And he does. But he’s also still a really good monster fighter. So, he’s also going to be kicking some deadite buttocks, if you’ll pardon the French.”

“It’s The Searchers with carnage and mayhem,” adds Campbell of the newest chapter in the Evil Dead saga. “I’m relegated a little bit into the John Wayne mode these days with my team—the young, virile, evil fighters who will pair up with Ash and take on this nemesis: this never ending, ever evolving nemesis.”