As Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Rob Tapert prepare to bring the ancient battle of The Chin and The Deadites to the small screen with Ash Vs. Evil Dead, they’ve added an actress they know fairly well to the cast. Lucy Lawless is set to join the fun.
Lawless, who worked with the trio on Xena: Warrior Princess (and is married to Tapert), will return to Starz, the channel which last saw her scheming on Spartacus.
In Ash Vs. Evil Dead, she’s set as Ruby, a mysterious woman who is obsessed with her quest to hunt down the source of recent Deadite action. Which you would think might make her a useful ally for Campbell’s Ash... If only she didn’t think he was responsible. It’s just another weight of this fantastical world loaded onto our hero, who has spent 30 years avoiding both the horror of the Evil Dead and any sort of real responsibility. But he’s spurred into action by a fresh plague of Deadite swarms, which threaten all mankind.
With Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo and Jill Marie Jones all aboard the series, Raimi wrote the first episode with his brother Ivan and will direct that initial outing, with ten half-hour episodes planned for the first season, scheduled to debut later this year. Lawless most recently cropped up on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and had a recurring role on Parks And Recreation. She’ll be a recurring cast member for supernatural US TV drama Salem’s second season.