Sorry, But Jane Levy's Mia From Evil Dead Shouldn't Return To The Franchise (& Evil Dead Rise Proves Why)
As the Evil Dead franchise continues to expand, talks about past characters potentially returning intensify, among them Evil Dead’s Mia (Jane Levy) – but the truth is that the franchise doesn’t need her, and Evil Dead Rise proved why. The 1980s saw the beginning of some of the biggest and most popular horror franchises, one of them Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise. It all started with Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) going to a cabin in the woods with his friends in 1981’s The Evil Dead, where they unleashed an evil force that possessed Ash’s friends, leaving him as the sole survivor.
Ash returned in Evil Dead II (which retcons the first movie) and his story continued in the third movie, Army of Darkness, and the TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead. However, the franchise began to branch out in 2013 with Fede Álvarez’s reimagining simply titled Evil Dead. This became the first Evil Dead movie without Ash as the main character and introduced Final Girl Mia Allen (Jane Levy) instead. The franchise now continues with a standalone format, and the most recent entry, Evil Dead Rise, shows why Mia shouldn’t return in future movies.
Evil Dead Rise Shows That The Franchise’s Future Is Standalone Movies
The Evil Dead Franchise Has Found Its Best Format
Evil Dead sees Mia, her brother David, his girlfriend Natalie, and their friends Eric and Olivia arriving at Mia and David’s family cabin. The purpose of the trip is to help Mia overcome her substance-use disorder as she begins having withdrawal symptoms. At the same time, they find the Naturom Demonto, and Eric makes the huge mistake of reading an incantation from it, thus unleashing the evil force that begins to possess them and kill them. At the end of Evil Dead, Mia is the sole survivor after defeating the Abomination, her demonic doppelgänger.
The next movie in the franchise, Evil Dead Rise, isn’t part of the continuity of either the Ash Williams trilogy or Álvarez’s Evil Dead, thus being a standalone movie. Directed by Lee Cronin, Evil Dead Rise follows Beth (Lily Sullivan), who visits her estranged sister, Ellie, her nephew Danny, and her nieces Bridget and Kassie. After an earthquake uncovers a concealed chamber in the building, Danny retrieves the Naturom Demonto, unleashing evil that takes them one by one, with Beth and Kassie being the only survivors.
The franchise’s future is in continuing to explore the stories of new characters who come across the evil books in some way.
The upcoming Evil Dead movie, Evil Dead Burn, isn’t being treated as a sequel and has been described as “spin-off”, following the standalone format of Evil Dead Rise. Still, this hasn’t stopped questions about the potential return of characters like Beth and Mia, and Jane Levy recently told Screen Rant that Mia’s return might be possible. However, that would break the standalone format that has successfully brought the Evil Dead franchise back to life with Evil Dead Rise.
Instead, the franchise’s future is in continuing to explore the stories of new characters who come across the evil books in some way and who unleash new horrors around them, as well as their own ways of dealing with said threats. Through this, the franchise would also avoid being repetitive, which is what happened with Álvarez’s Evil Dead, despite having a different main character.
Mia’s Story In Evil Dead Is Still Connected To Ash & Evil Dead Rise
The Main Movies Are Connected By 1 Key Element
Despite being separate stories, Mia and Evil Dead have an important connection to Ash’s trilogy and Evil Dead Rise (beyond the evil force itself, of course). Speaking to Collider in 2023, Bruce Campbell explained that the connecting link between Ash’s timeline, Mia’s, and that of Evil Dead Rise is the Necronomicon. Army of Darkness revealed that there are three copies of the book, so the question in the franchise now is where the book is and where it’s going to pop up.
Even if Ash, Mia, and Beth’s stories are separate and they face the evil force in different ways, they are connected through the books that unleash a real-life nightmare around them. However, this link raises some questions about Evil Dead Burn and future movies, as, if there are only three evil books as established in Army of Darkness, then the upcoming movies will be sharing a book with one of the previous movies, making them more like spiritual sequels.
Evil Dead Gave Closure To Mia (Unlike The Evil Dead With Ash)
Sorry, But Mia’s Story Is Over
Not only does Mia not need to return as the Evil Dead franchise is succeeding as an anthology movie series, but her story already got closure. Surely, Mia definitely has a lot of trauma after that disastrous and horrifying night that she would have to treat (along with her substance-use disorder) at some point, but the evil force moves on after that. Mia, exhausted but alive, leaves the cabin at the end of Evil Dead, and unlike Ash at the end of the first movie, Mia isn’t followed by the demonic force.
The same goes for Beth and Kassie at the end of Evil Dead Rise, who finally escape the building after forcing the Marauder’s body into a wood chipper. The evil force also leaves and finds a new target, so Beth and Kassie can now recover and do their best to move on. Mia and Beth don’t have a reason to return in future Evil Dead movies, allowing the franchise to carry on with the anthology format that has been working so well so far.
Source: Collider.
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