Just saw an old DM on on my Xbox from about 5 months ago that told me there was an article where Bruce Campbell himself said that Ash was cut from MK11 due to MGM getting greedy at the last minute.
A: I can’t find that article
B: What I can find are a bunch of unrelated statements that COULD mean that if you link them together with some conjecture
C: Things change over time anyway, so those statements really only apply to the content of KP1.
D: I can’t imagine that MGM values Evil Dead more then RoboCop to the point that they would upcharge for one and not the other. No offense but they’re both pretty niche.
All that said. I still think Ash is coming eventually. Lot’s of what I’ve been learning about media companies in film school just makes all this “evidence” about Ash being scrapped extremely suspect. I think what’s far more likely is that a combination of both changing development practices, the pandemic, promoting the Joker movie taking precedence with WB, and yes potentially issues with MGM, all lead to him being shifted to the end of the pipeline. Because, you have to admit, Ash would make a spectacular Grand Finale.