Actor Bruce Campbell might not exactly be a household name, but around the genre community, the Evil Dead star is practically royalty. One of his lesser-known films, Bubba Ho-Tep, never became a huge sensation, but has gained an intensely devout cult following. Sadly, the actor recently revealed to Entertainment Weekly that the possibility of a sequel has been “killed” by the star himself.
“I killed it,” Campbell confessed. “I killed it for me. I told the creators that I didn’t want to dance around it anymore. I feel that the first one was a nice little gem and you don’t have to make a sequel for everything. Don Coscarelli, god bless him, go make it. You know, get somebody else. They had Ron Perlman at one point. Knock yourself out. I don’t want to stop you from making this, but I don’t want to [do it]. So, that one I’m just going to let go.”
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Based on a novel of the same name, Bubba Ho-Tep featured a still-alive Elvis Presley (Campbell) defending a nursing home with a man who believed they were JFK from a mummy.
The potential sequel, Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She Vampires, was slated to have Campbell reprise his role as Presley and incorporate Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, played by Paul Giamatti. Coscarelli worked with Giamatti on 2012’s John Dies at the End, another horror-comedy adaptation from a novel of the same name.
While it might be disappointing to know Campbell won’t be involved in a sequel, it comes from the good reason of him being so busy with Ash vs. Evil Dead. The Starz horror-comedy will debut its third season this fall, giving Campbell one of his biggest hits since the original trilogy of films upon which the series is based.
Luckily, for those looking for more adventures of Bubba Ho-Tep, you can check out the prequel novel, Bubba and the Cosmic Blood-Suckers, which is written by film and original novel writer Joe R. Lansdale.
Photo Credit: Vitagraph
