Sébastien Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn is now filming
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. In recent months, we’ve been seeing casting announcements: 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). Character details have not been revealed, but Vaniček has now taken to social media to confirm that filming has begun!
Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema will be giving the film a theatrical release on July 24, 2026.
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 not been revealed, but he has said that he has complete creative control on his Evil Dead movie, and intends to give it a French twist.
Franchise creator Sam Raimi is producing the film alongside Rob Tapert, while Romel Adam, Jose Canas, Lee Cronin, and Bruce Campbell serve as executive producers. A while back, Bruce Campbell told AV Club, “It’s all about the books now. It has nothing to do with (franchise hero Ash) or any particular character. In Army of Darkness, we first saw three books. So we know there are three out there, and none of them are any good. It’s about: where does that darn book wind up, who gets it, and what happens? But the universe is the same. It’s about innocent people with no special skills having to fight for their very lives. … I think the stories will progress a little more now. We’re going to try and do them more like every two or three years rather than every 10 years. It’s also the first time Sam is working with his brother Ivan to create an overall Bible that will give future writers and directors an idea of where this thing should go next to potentially tie in some of these stories. So I think it’s going to get a little more tied in as the years go by. But because it’s all about the books. It could be a book in the past, a book in the future. It’s yet to be determined.“
Vaniček told Variety that he was drawn to the Evil Dead franchise because it’s “like a creative playground, a bold laboratory for filmmakers eager to explore something raw, brutal, and deeply transgressive. I quickly expressed my ambition to bring something fresh and meaningful to this universe, to offer the franchise to an audience who isn’t familiar with Evil Dead and is in search of unique, immersive, and sensory experiences. My goal was to craft a powerful, singular – almost personal – story that could stand on its own, while still resonating deeply within the rich, complex world that Sam has built.” He’s aiming to make a film that has “depth and nuance, something that feels uniquely ours, but that anyone can connect with. … The ambition remains the same as with Infested: to create a visceral, sensory experience that punches the audience in the gut. I want people to feel physically drained when they leave the theater, like they’ve been through an emotional and intense journey.“
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 in development. 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. We haven’t heard any more about that one. An animated series follow-up to Ash vs. Evil Dead is also in the works.
Are you looking forward to Evil Dead Burn, and are you glad to hear that filming has begun? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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