Lucy Lawless and director Sam Raimi already have a strong work relationship together, as the latter produced Xena: Warrior Princess and Spartacus. Things still must be sound between the two, as Lawless joins Raimi's latest, his Evil Dead sequel series Ash vs. Evil Dead.
Lawless joins Bruce Campbell, reprising Ash from the Evil Dead movies, as Ruby. She's described as a mysterious figure is myopic in her quest to hunt down the source of the recent Evil outbreaks, with Ash the cause of the outbreak she thinks, TV Line notes.
Lawless and Campbell are joined by Ray Santiago, who plays Ash's loyal sidekick Pablo Simon Boliver, and Dana DeLorenzo, as moody wild child Kelly Maxwell. As Slashfilm reported last month, Jill Marie Jones was cast to play disgraced Michigan state trooper Amanda Fisher set to prove Ash responsible for a crime, only to find his crew may be humanity's last hope. But based on the similarities of her character to Lawless and no mentions to her in new stories about Ash vs. Evil Dead, it appears Lawless replaced Jones.
Production on Ash vs. Evil Dead, a half-hour program, shoots New Zealand on location this spring. Raimi co-wrote and directs the pilot, and serves as an executive producer alongside Campbell and Rob Tapert on the new show. They all also produced 2013's Evil Dead remake. After years of rumors for an Evil Dead sequel, Raimi and his crew officially announced this new Starz show in November. Word first came out about it, though, this July.
Lawless has joined a lot of shows these past couple years, including Adventure Time, No Ordinary Family, Top of the Lake, Parks and Recreation, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Code.
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