Evil Dead - Timeline

Okay, so here's a few comics to note:

-Darkman vs Army of Darkness is a sequel to Darkman III: Die Darkman Die. Due to that, the comic is not pushed to contemporary times like most Evil Dead comic continuities, thus it technically can fit into the Evil Dead movie canon if one wished. I'd rather it just be canon to Darkman and the Ash in the story is a multiversal variant though. Set in the 1990s.

-KISS/Army of Darkness is an alternate timeline branching from 1979. The end of the comic leads into the timeline of the film trilogy, so technically speaking this would occur first. Set in an alternate 1979, 1981 and 1300, and ends in the prime timeline's 1979.

-Army of Darkness/Bubba Ho-Tep is a sequel to Bubba Ho-Tep. Ash mentions that he is close to the age that Elvis was when he supposedly died. This contradicts Ash's driver's licence from Ash vs Evil Dead, which suggests he would be older than what Elvis was, but the point stands that it does support that the original films were set in their actual time period. Again, probably best that that belongs to the Bubba Ho-Tep continuity. Otherwise, I'd be adding the Bubba Ho-Tep film and its prequel comic, then I'd be adding Darkman, and then, well, you get the idea. Set in 2002.

-Army of Darkness versus The Re-Animator: Necronomicon Rising appears to be connected to the Re-Animator film series unlike the previous Army of Darkness/Re-Animator crossovers. Due to Herbert not being in prison or on the run, I guess it's set between The first and second movies? So, 1987-1988 according to Movie Timelines. Again, another crossover comic because they're the only ones that actually fit for some reason. :p Once again, I'm gonna discount it because this isn't a Horrorverse timeline. It does add the Re-Animator films to that timeline though.
 
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Jozaca said:
According to tv tropes there are 3 licensed games in the PS2 era that have an original plot, the first 2 follow after Army of Darkness and the 3rd one happens in a parallel universe where Ash is not sucked into the time portal at the end of Evil Dead 2:
  • Evil Dead: Hail to the King (released in 2000)
  • Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick (released in 2003)
  • Evil Dead: Regeneration (released in 2005)
Click to expand...
Anything to say about this?
 
I added the first two. I don't see why the third can't just be set six months after Army of Darkness, but everyone says it's an alternate timeline...
 
By the way, should I include the non-canon recap stuff and Evil Dead 2 ending or does that just make things too confusing? I'll still mention that they're false memories Ash has but they didn't technically happen.
 
Pro Bot said:
By the way, should I include the non-canon recap stuff and Evil Dead 2 ending or does that just make things too confusing? I'll still mention that they're false memories Ash has but they didn't technically happen.
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I mean, I don't know, Am I supposed to be reading the detailed timeline having previously watch the films or not?
 
I think you can look at the timeline either way, the only spoilers are time travel. At the end of the day, it's supposed to tell you when everything takes place.

Essentially, Evil Dead 2 didn't have the rights to the first film so they shot new footage to recap the events of the first film, which played out somewhat differently to the first film. Bruce Campbell explains how they're connected here, but essentially the first few minutes of Evil Dead 2 didn't happen except for some flashbacks with the Knowby family.


I'm just wondering whether I should even include these scenes seeing as they didn't really happen. Ash remembers both The Evil Dead and the recap from Evil Dead 2 in the TV show, getting confused over where he actually found the Necronomicon.
 
Pro Bot said:
I think you can look at the timeline either way, the only spoilers are time travel. At the end of the day, it's supposed to tell you when everything takes place.

Essentially, Evil Dead 2 didn't have the rights to the first film so they shot new footage to recap the events of the first film, which played out somewhat differently to the first film. Bruce Campbell explains how they're connected here, but essentially the first few minutes of Evil Dead 2 didn't happen except for some flashbacks with the Knowby family.


I'm just wondering whether I should even include these scenes seeing as they didn't really happen. Ash remembers both The Evil Dead and the recap from Evil Dead 2 in the TV show, getting confused over where he actually found the Necronomicon.
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Yes I know, and the ending of Evil Dead 2 is contradicted by the first minutes of Army of Darkness (and the fact the movie is called that way instead of Evil Dead 3 is because they AGAIN didn't have the rights to any of the previous 2) I have only watched the 3 first movies. The part when Ash mentions the second movie in the TV show is just a joke, isn't it? Like, poking fun about the fact that there are 2 alternate tellings of the first night in the cabin
 
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I suppose so. Would you make the argument that these things shouldn't be included (apart from a few flashbacks), then?

-Evil Dead 2 recap
-Evil Dead 2 ending
-Army of Darkness recap
 
I read the tv tropes page for the game like 2 months ago and I think the page said that the game featured Ash from different, yet similar universes, one from each movie. Was tv tropes speculating or the game suggests that each movie is a timeline? Like:
Universe 1: Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 (except begining and ending) and Army of Darkness
Universe 2: Evil Dead 2
Universe 3: Evil Dead 2 (except ending) and Army of Darkness

Edit: I didn't remember that Army of Darkness also had another recap
 
Technically speaking, they are correct. When a character is brought out of their timeline during each film, they're from a different timeline/universe. The game doesn't actually state anything. You just get to play as four different versions of Ash. As far as I'm concerned:

Ash Williams (The Evil Dead)
-The Evil Dead (alt.)

Ash Williams (Evil Dead 2)
-The Evil Dead
-Evil Dead 2 (alt.)

Ash Williams (Army of Darkness)
-The Evil Dead
-Evil Dead 2
-Army of Darkness (alt.)

Ash Williams (Ash vs Evil Dead)
-The Evil Dead
-Evil Dead 2
-Army of Darkness
-Ash vs Evil Dead (alt.)

I honestly believe that the game is supposed to be a prequel to the first movie and that they will set eventually set everything right by the end of the recordings. Knowby will forget about the time travel and everyone will return to their own times to set things right or exist in their new timelines.

The game literally doesn't have a story beyond the recordings to be honest with you. The recordings loosely explain why the multiplayer can have all these different characters from across the whole franchise, but that's it.
 
www.imdb.com

Army of Darkness (1992) - Alternate versions - IMDb

Army of Darkness (1992) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com
The German "New Remastered Special Limited Edition" - VHS from "Screen Power" made one ending out of both alternative endings. It starts with the ending where Ash sleeps after he takes the drops. Suddenly a text-card appears, which says that Ash has a dream, while he is sleeping over the centuries. Then the ending in the supermarket starts. After it's finished, the "sleep"-ending goes on, where it has stopped. This version also includes 4 scenes from the Director's Cut and runs 104 minutes.

Works for me. :p
 
Pro Bot said:
www.imdb.com

Army of Darkness (1992) - Alternate versions - IMDb

Army of Darkness (1992) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com
The German "New Remastered Special Limited Edition" - VHS from "Screen Power" made one ending out of both alternative endings. It starts with the ending where Ash sleeps after he takes the drops. Suddenly a text-card appears, which says that Ash has a dream, while he is sleeping over the centuries. Then the ending in the supermarket starts. After it's finished, the "sleep"-ending goes on, where it has stopped. This version also includes 4 scenes from the Director's Cut and runs 104 minutes.

Works for me. :p
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Oh, I read it on tv tropes a long time ago but misunderstood, I thought they were saying the alternate ending showed the time travel into the future being the dream rather than the other way around.
 
1428elm.com

Bruce Campbell: Dropping knowledge on original Army of Darkness ending

Bruce Campbell appeared at Mad Monster Party in Charlotte, North Carolina this past weekend. During his Q & A session with the audience, he dropped...
1428elm.com 1428elm.com
In Bruce's panel discussion, he revealed that the original ending of Army of Darkness would have begun where Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3 ended.

Eh, okay. Maybe Ash from 1982 woke up in the future, found his way to his present (theatrical cut ending) leading to him returning to the future in 2018. Maybe the animated series will have both young and old Ash. I don't know, but this seems to confirm that they take place in the same future timeline.
 
comicbook.com

Evil Dead Rise Director Explains How New Film's Necronomicon Connects to Previous Movies

The upcoming Evil Dead Rise has a number of behind-the-scenes connections to previous installments [...]
comicbook.com comicbook.com
"There are connections to the past, lines are drawn," Cronin teased to Empire Magazine of the book in this film. "In one of the early meetings I had with Sam Raimi, I said, 'You know the way in Army of Darkness, there's three [Necronomicons]? You had one, [2013 Evil Dead director] Fede [Álvarez] had one, I'm going to take the other one.' It gave me that platform to nudge things forward, and also to showcase that we live in a world where there is more than one copy of the Necronomicon. Those books may all have slightly different personalities -- it's not exactly the same book, necessarily, that Ash had in the cabin. But it's very, very firmly related. It could even be more dangerous..."

"We probably worked on it for three months," Cronin confirmed. "It's all completely hand-made, hand-drawn. It's got a different visual style to what you've seen before internally. I even brought in little hints of Celtic influences and different things to give it a hell of a lot of personality. It's the bastard cousin of the other books, and they're the bastard cousin of this."
 
"Basically, there's no connection to any of the movies. I think it's going to be sort of like that from now on. It's all about the books now, and there are three of them. We found that out in Army of Darkness. These three books could be anywhere. So where did the book wind up now? And whose hands did it fall into? And what happens? [Director] Lee Cronin, who Sam handpicked, did an excellent job. He's gonna be a busy boy because he knows what he's doing."

So Bruce Campbell said the same thing. Evidently they're the same Necronomicons from Army of Darkness.

1. Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (Evil Dead Trilogy)
2. Naturom Demonto (Evil Dead 2013)
3. Necronomicon (Evil Dead Rise)
Screenshot_20230110_163244_YouTube.jpg

I imagine that the flying book that bit Ash is the Necronomicon seen in Evil Dead Rise while the one that sucked up Ash whole was the 2013 book. The reason I say this is because the Necronomicon seen in Evil Dead Rise had teeth, thus is the only one that could have bit Ash.
 
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So... some interesting things about the 2013 movie I'd like to note and discuss. Specifically about the cabin. I'm going to try my best to link it based on official word and my own speculation and theories from inference.

"It continues the first one. The coincidences on events between the first film and mine are not coincidences, but more like dark fate created by the evil book. (Ash car is still there rusting away.)"

So, the Oldsmobile is Ash's car. It's a 1974 instead of a 1973, but it's almost the exact same. A lot of people took this to mean Evil Dead was an alternate sequel to the first film, but obviously this was not the case. The movie has easter eggs to events from the other films, like Ash's severed hand in the book or Raymond Knowby's Evil Dead 2 dialogue. Further, there were crossover plans between Ash and Mia and later statements from creatives of the series, including Sam Raimi, reinforced that the fourth instalment is the same universe.

So, Ash's car was sent back in time in 1982. My theory is that the time travel resets the physical properties around the cabin to an earlier state, fixing the fruit cellar door and other damage done to the cabin, as seen in Ash vs Evil Dead. Ash's car was "cloned" by the temporal anomaly because the cabin was restored to an earlier state.

The cabin looks different in Evil Dead (2013). We can chalk this up to the magical properties of the location, and how it seems to constantly change. I suppose the Oldsmobile error can be chalked up to magic too then.

Sometime between 1982 and 2013, the Knowby cabin is acquired by the Allen family. They vacation to it during the summer. Mia and David's mother was eventually driven mad and sent to an insane asylum.

As we heard in Evil Dead (2013), the cabin is still haunted by Raymond Knowby, Cheryl Williams and the Kandarian Demon ("join us", "you're all going to die tonight", "bodily dismemberment" audio). I take it that the Kandarian Demon from the original trilogy is only a witness to the exploits of the Taker of Souls during the film. It's been implied each Necronomicon is unique and likely summon different classes of demon to one another.

Ash vs. Evil Dead retcons Knowby cabin to be located in Michigan. Mia Allen is wearing a Michigan State University t-shirt. The locations match up for them to be the same location.

The cabin is set on fire by the end of the film. I take it to be similar to how Kelly set the cabin on fire during Ash vs Evil Dead, and it didn't destroy it. I had another theory that perhaps Evil Dead (2013) takes place between S2 and S3 of Ash vs Evil Dead and that's the real reason the cabin isn't there in the original timeline rather than due to a temporal anomaly replacing the cabin's state in the main timeline with its alternate 1982 counterpart. However, this doesn't work under scrutiny because the green car from the alternate 1982 timeline is in the same place in 2018. It could be a coincidence but it seems pretty speculative.
 
Does the "time travel duplicates cars" idea come from the Back to the Future IDW comics?:p (Just joking)
 
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