New Evil Dead film coming in 2026, director says

Sébastian Vanicek has revealed the next 'Evil Dead' film will hit cinemas in 2026.

The French director will helm the next spin-off in the horror franchise created by Sam Raimi, and has shared that the upcoming movie will be called 'Evil Dead Burn' and will be released in two years.

Taking to Instagram, the filmmaker posted a picture of the script - which credited himself and Florent Bernard as writers - and simply captioned it: "2026."

Evil Dead Burn will be the sixth entry in the zombie-horror series, which began in 1981 with Raimi's The Evil Dead.

The movie - which starred Bruce Campbell as Ashley 'Ash' J. Williams - spawned two direct sequels: 'Evil Dead II' in 1987 and 1992's 'Army of Darkness'.

After the franchise went on pause, it continued in 2013 with Evil Dead, a soft reboot of the series which saw Raimi serve as a producer alongside Campbell and Rob Tapert. 'lien: Romulus director Fede Álvarez helmed the project.

Evil Dead then made its way to the small screen with Starz' TV show Ash vs Evil Dead, which lasted for three seasons and aired from 2015 to 2018.

In 2023, Evil Dead Rise was released. Directed by Lee Cronin it focused on single mother Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) who becomes possessed by an unseen demonic force after the entity is awakened.

At the time, Raimi said he hoped the movie would lead to a "revitalisation" of the series on the silver screen.

Raimi also explained there had been a 10-year gap between Evil Dead and the 2023 film because he and Campbell wanted to "protect the franchise" by finding the right director to stay faithful to the series' identity.

During an interview with Geeks of Color, he explained: "It's really why it took so long to make another one. We had to find somebody who really liked the Evil Dead movies, understood what made them work, was a fan of them but still wanted to break out and find some new territory for the audience.

"Because the Evil Dead audience really wants something new. So the best way we could protect it was by finding the right captain of the ship to take it to the next destination."

Campbell added he and Raimi were "very protective" of the franchise, though wanted to give new directors like Álvarez and Cronin "a lot of leeway" because the producing pair wanted to "respect their artistry".