Peacock Resurrects Jason Voorhees From 16-Year Slumber

In my latest post from last week, I wrote about my hopes, expectations, and concerns for Amazon Prime's upcoming eight-episode adaptation of Stephen King's first-published novel, supervised by the primary modern King adapter, Mike Flanagan. In it, I mentioned that, while generally I'm not a diehard fan of horror TV, there are two horror series in development that my mouth is salivating for: Carrie and Crystal Lake, a slasher prequel series to the original 1980 campfire classic, Friday the 13th. While my position remains that Flanagan's project lends itself more conveniently to a televised format, that doesn't mean my heart isn't soaring for the incoming return of my number one favorite horror icon since childhood. 

It's now been 16 years since we last saw the hockey-masked, machete-wielding madman, Jason Voorhees, slashing and impaling his way through a gaggle of pot-smoking, sexually overactive teenagers and fatally incompetent "authority figures" on the grounds of Camp Crystal Lake, the latest installment of the venerable 12-entry franchise being Marcus Nispel's competently constructed but narratively uninspired retread of a remake from 2009. Since then, numerous attempts have been made to resurrect the lumbering, undead mama's boy from his overlong slumber at the bottom of the lake, all to no avail. Originally, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, the writing duo behind Nispel's remake as well as Ronny Yu's insanely stupid yet exuberantly colorful and rip-roaring crossover, Freddy Vs. Jason, were hired to pen a sequel to their own remake, which was set for a release date of August 13th, 2010 and hinted at the tantalizing prospect of placing Jason in a refreshingly snow-saturated winter environment. (Who wouldn't have wanted to feast their eyes on the colorful juxtaposition of the vibrant red of blood and austere white of snow?) 

When plans for that fell through, several writers hopped on board to give the franchise another restart, the most exciting and promising of whom was Aaron Guzikowski, who crafted an incredible script titled (somewhat awkwardly) Friday the 13th: Part 13, in celebration of what would've been the lucky 13th installment in the Friday the 13th franchise. In this ambitious reimagining of the Voorhees mythology, we would've finally been introduced to the man who brought Jason into this world, Elias Voorhees, who would've began the story as the original killer of Crystal Lake. I've read Guzikowski's screenplay in full twice, in addition to rereading snippets and certain scenes here and there, and I can honestly assert it would've made for a really good, if not great, remake, one that would've put the one we actually received to utter shame. It was set to be directed by Breck Eisner, who helmed the critically successful remake of George Romero's The Crazies, so it's safe to say we would've been in the hands of two craftsmen who know exactly what they're doing. Distressingly, Guzikowski's script will forever remain exactly that, due to a mix of a now-resolved lawsuit between original screenwriter Victor Miller and director Sean Cunningham as to who owns the rights to the franchise (spoiler: Miller won), and the financial underperformance of the 2017 sequel, Rings (because the Friday the 13th and The Ring franchises have so much to do with each other). For that reason, I encourage every one reading this, whether you're a Friday fan or otherwise, to read Guzikowski's terminated script via a quick Google search. 

In October 2022, a prequel series to Victor Miller's Friday the 13th titled Crystal Lake was announced to be in development by A24, the indie production company that specializes in some of the most boldly original and critically acclaimed horror projects of the past decade. Bryan Fuller, the writer of David Carson's made-for-TV 2002 remake of Carrie and the psychological horror series, Hannibal, was initially on board as showrunner. Kevin Williamson, the mastermind behind the revitalization of the slasher subgenre courtesy of Wes Craven's horror love letter, Scream, was expected to craft an episode for season one. Together, they had complete creative freedom of the franchise under the streaming rights. Anything that had happened within the Voorhees universe up until that point was fair game for adaptation. As Fuller elaborated to Fangoria, "As a streaming series, we have the rights to do everything underneath the Friday the 13th umbrella. The movie rights are a completely different thing. They are tied up at New Line and are super, super messy and probably won't be untangled anytime soon, but as far as us chickens in the television industry, uh, roost, we have access to anything and everything that Friday the 13th has done up until this point." One episode written by Fuller was described as "an hour-long chase" on a frozen Crystal Lake, seemingly paying homage to the aborted concept envisioned long ago by Swift and Shannon for their sequel. 

Due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, production on the show was temporarily halted in May of that year. In May 2024, Fuller was given the machete after A24 elected to take the franchise in a direction that didn't comply with the former's artistic vision. Subsequently, Williamson departed the campgrounds as well. Nick Antosca, who, like Guzikowski, wrote a terminated script for a Friday remake (one that I can't recommend you read), was in talks to replace Fuller, but nothing came to fruition. Then in August 2024, Brad Caleb Kane, a co-showrunner and executive producer of another upcoming horror prequel series, It: Welcome to Derry, was officially announced as the new showrunner of Crystal Lake, in addition to serving as its sole creator, writer, and co-executive producer. Directing the slasher series are Michael Lennox (episodes 1-3), Celine Held and Logan George (4-6), and Quyen Tran (7 & 8).

In January 2023, it was reported that Adrienne King, famous for playing the original final girl of the franchise, Alice Hardy, in Friday the 13th, had been cast in a recurring undisclosed role. (On IMDB, it states that she's reprising her role as Alice, a blatant impossibility considering Crystal Lake takes place prior to the original movie, which means King would have to be de-aged by about 46 years.) However, when King was hired, Fuller was the creator, so it's undetermined whether she's still attached to the project now that he's been fired. Personally, as much as I cherish King's legendary performance in the first Friday, I'm not a big cameo guy, so I'm indifferent as to whether she makes a return to the franchise. The most exciting piece of casting pertains to who will step into the bloody shoes of Pamela Voorhees, Jason's homicidal mother who paved the way for her son's supernatural resurrection. At one point during Fuller's involvement, Charlize Theron was eyed for the role, a somewhat far-fetched possibility that I'm not surprised didn't come to fruition considering the Oscar winner's fame and the typical reluctance of celebrities to partake in the slasher subgenre (Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster qualifying as a once-in-a-lifetime exception). Apart from the Aileen Wuornos actress, Claire Danes was offered the role and turned it down. Now, she would've been a magnificent choice based on her performance as Carrie Mathison in Homeland, in which she seemed to be on the verge (or in the process) of a mental breakdown every five minutes. 

My number one choice for Pamela would be Naomi Watts, the queen of the horror remake recognized primarily for her starring performance as Rachel Keller in Gore Verbinski's The Ring. Following her stirring breakthrough in the hit J-horror remake, Watts was cast in the lead role of Ann Farber in Michael Haneke's American remake of his own Austrian psychological torture porno, Funny Games, then as the titular mystery mom, in the American remake of Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's Austrian psychological chiller, Goodnight Mommy. In 2016, I wrote my own remake of Friday the 13th, a passion project since I was eight, in which I almost immediately cast Watts as Pamela Voorhees (after briefly considering Rose Byrne). In my mind, Watts was born for this role. Think about it: in her first two horror remakes, she plays a loving mother determined to do anything and everything in her humanly power to protect her young son from lethal harm. When you put aside her homicidal tendencies, who is Pamela Voorhees? She's the mother of a young, mentally disabled son who is so consumed by grief after his disappearance that she completely loses contact with reality. She doesn't one day pick up a knife and murder a group of innocent camp counselors for no reason a la Michael Myers. Her son was her entire world, and she's driven by an insatiable desire to avenge his supposed drowning at the hands of malicious children and the older counselors who were neglecting their responsibilities. All Watts would have to do is take that maternal devotion she's expressed so keenly in her previous horror efforts and amplify it with a psychotic rage. What happens to a mother after her efforts to protect her child from the unimaginable horrors of the merciless, apathetic world fail miserably? It would've been exhilarating watching an actress of Watts' caliber transition from an affectionate, hardworking single mother striving to keep her head above water to a delusional, implacable serial killer hell-bent on misdirected vengeance. Even though Watts is nine years older than she was when I cast her in my Fanon article, she's still of age (56) to play Pam, only four years older than Betsy Palmer was when she originated the part. 

Unfortunately, it appears my dream casting will forever remain as such, but that doesn't mean I'm less than deeply intrigued about who is actually portraying the grieving mother from hell. In March 2025, the role of Pamela Voorhees was offered to and accepted by Linda Cardellini, a strikingly peculiar choice for a few reasons. For one, I would've expected more of an unknown actress like Palmer was. While her name isn't quite as synonymous with Hollywood as Theron's, Cardellini is still a well-known longtime performer, having jumpstarted her career in the 1999 teen comedy series, Freaks and Geeks, and making a small but memorable appearance in 2001 in the climax of Legally Blonde (as a first-degree murderess, no less). In recent years, Cardellini has made something of a comeback in her acting career, offering her warm, nonjudgmental presence to the 2018 Best Picture winner, Green Book, as Viggo Mortensen's doting wife, Dolores Venere, before leavening her high-spirited goofiness with impressive dramatic complexity in the black comedy series, Dead to Me, alongside Christina Applegate (who would've been a perfect candidate for Pamela were it not for her career-killing autoimmune disease).

Unlike Naomi Watts, Cardellini is not a scream queen, although she did cut her teeth in the horror genre in Michael Chaves' The Curse of La Llorona, in which she played the protagonist -- who happened to be a mother driven to protect her young children from the wrath of a malicious spirit who herself is a grieving mother. So there's definitely a clever irony in Cardellini now playing horror's most iconic vengeful mother. How do I think she'll perform? I have reasonably high hopes. While her character in La Llorona was too dimwitted to write home about -- at one point, she sees bruises on her daughter's arms and literally responds with a "gee, it sure is tough being the new kid in town, huh?" speech -- there was certainly nothing wrong with Cardellini's performance. She wasn't given much to do besides scream, but she had quite the set of lungs on her. I'm confident in her ability to portray maternal tenderness and profound anguish, but it'll be interesting to see how convincingly she can channel Betsy Palmer's unbridled lunacy and erratic shifts from soft-spoken and nurturing to unhinged and bloodthirsty. Hopefully she'll get to don the iconic blue cable knit sweater at some point during the season. 

Two months after Cardellini's headline-making casting announcement, William Catlett, who starred in two horror films released in 2024, Abigail and Never Let Go, respectively, was the second actor to be cast in the undisclosed role of Levon Brooks. It's been theorized Brooks will serve as the chief of police of Crystal Lake who potentially leads the search for Jason's missing body. (That would make a helluva lot more sense than being Pamela's husband and Jason's father.) As a present for the fans keeping tabs on the development of the series, Kane reserved the announcement of three more members of the primary cast for June 13th (yes, Friday the 13th): Devin Kessler, who will play Briana Brooks, either the wife or daughter of Levon; Cameron Scoggins, who will play "legacy character" Dorf, the uptight, ball-busting motorcycle cop from the original movie played by Ron Millkie (raise your hand if you were aching for the return of that one-scene character); and Gwendolyn Sundstrom as Grace, who I imagine will be a main Crystal Lake camper. Apart from their names, Kane hasn't unveiled any information as to the roles they'll play in the show -- a tactic employed to similarly frustrating effect by Mike Flanagan regarding many of his actors in Carrie. Also joining the cast are Danielle Kotch as Claudette Hayes, the counselor killed off-camera in the pre-credit sequence of the original alongside her boyfriend, Barry Jackson; Nancy Nagrant as Kay Christy, Steve's mother and the co-owner of Camp Crystal Lake alongside her husband; Victoria Russell as Celeste, possibly one of the counselors and the final girl of the season; Natalie Shaw as Pinky; and Zachary Branch in a currently unnamed role.

Kane has teased the return of many more legacy characters, including "Crazy" Ralph, the drunken but factually accurate doomsayer played with spine-tingling creepiness by Walt Gorney, via an Instagram photo of a familiar beach cruiser. No word yet on who will play 11-year-old Jason, who I can only imagine will be a prominent figure in this prequel series and have to spend hours a day in the makeup chair. Whoever wins this role, I envy greatly because it's one I've wanted to play my whole life. Seriously, I even asked my at-the-time acting agent if she could book me an audition for the 2009 remake. As for the full-grown Jason with whom we associate the title, Friday the 13th, it's still unknown whether he'll make an appearance. If he does, I imagine it'll be toward the end of the season or, if there's a second season, maybe he'll take over his mother's role as the Crystal Lake killer like he did in the first cinematic sequel. Horror Inc. has unleashed a new look for the character, aided by makeup effects icon Greg Nicotero, that remains faithful to his recent appearances -- the tattered jacket and light brown T-shirt underneath, dark grey work pants, brown boots, and bald head with strands of hair -- while updating the hockey mask via 13 holes and three blood-red chevrons. So we have an idea of what Jason will look like should he rear his deformed, oversized head in Crystal Lake. Horror Inc. president Rob Barsamian states, "We strive to maintain Jason's original essence, while continuing to move toward the future with a defined look and feel that takes Jason into his next chapter. We're also working with both familiar and fresh franchise voices to strike that balance. We gave Greg our new 13-hole mask and worked together on this full body look that embodies classic Jason. He's a strong, towering, and terrifying slasher with a machete, his weapon of choice."

Principal photography for Crystal Lake commenced on June 20th, 2025, only four days after that of Carrie, and the prequel series will likewise fill out its story over the course of eight episodes. In May, a casting call was sent out from Grant Wilfley Casting requesting background services for the roles of campers and counselors in the state of New Jersey. Production was scheduled to transpire from June to August 2025 under the working title, Mama's Boy (hmm, I wonder who that could be referring to). As a resident of NJ, former background actor, and lifelong fan of the horror genre in general and Friday the 13th franchise in particular, I lightly considered applying for a role. How poetic would that have been to participate (even in such a limited capacity) in a chapter of the franchise that practically raised me! Unfortunately, at the time of the announcement, there was no disclosure as to which city in New Jersey Crystal Lake would be filming in, and I did not want to commit myself to a project that would necessitate a long travel that would cost more than it would compensate. As it turns out, I made the right decision; the first week of filming took place in West Milford, a two-hour, 36-minute drive from Cherry Hill. Other locations, all of them over two hours beyond mine, include Hardwick (where Kane will utilize Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, the Boy Scout camp which portrayed the original Camp Crystal Lake), Blairstown, and Hope, all of which are in Warren County, NJ. For a background role, no less? I'll just stay seated at my desk and be this guy.  

Plot details are under wraps, with the only certainty being that Crystal Lake will most likely transpire in the early 1970s, shortly before the events of Friday the 13th, and revolve around Pamela Voorhees, a one-time budding singer who forfeited her career in order to nurture her special needs son, Jason, as his solo parent. After Jason goes missing at Camp Crystal Lake one day, having likely drowned on the watch of two counselors preoccupied with their carnal desires, she experiences a mental breakdown and embarks on the murderous rampage for which she will become infamous. The forfeited singing career sounds like a miniscule yet meaningful wrinkle on Pamela's characterization because it will have meant she's now lost the two loves of her life: her only child who just wanted to be accepted by his able-bodied peers, and the career she gave up to raise him. I hope Kane places a strong emphasis on the tender, intimate relationship between Pamela and Jason so as to convey the tragedy of Pamela's life. Long before both characters became unstoppable icons of slasher horror, Pamela and Jason were two innocent human beings who loved and depended upon one another. Pamela was a doting mother who did everything she could to shelter Jason from a world she knew wouldn't accept him for his disabilities, taking a summer job as a camp cook to earn extra money for her and her child to simply exist and get by. Before he donned the hockey mask and picked up the machete, Jason was just a child, an innocent 11-year-old boy who had no friends, no social skills, no support system outside of his mother. He was born with a bald, enlarged head owing to hydrocephalus, and severe facial deformities including crossed eyes and jagged teeth. Putting aside a subjective image of Jason in Pamela's mind in which he's screaming for her help, it's safe to assume he was mute as well. He began his life as a victim of a deformed body and a society that belittled him for it. In terms of backstory, Friday the 13th has the qualities of a tragedy as opposed to just a teen slasher film, and it's up to Kane to utilize his opportunity to capitalize on that perspective-shifting potential. 

It's comforting to have someone like Kane, a staunch, lifelong fan of the franchise, sitting in the driver's seat of this new chapter. "From the moment I watched Jason Voorhees squeeze a guy's eyeball out of its socket (in glorious 3D!) at the tender age of eight years old, I knew my creative path was someday destined to converge with The Man Behind the Mask. Nothing defined my childhood more than growing up in the golden age of the slasher flick, and nothing's defined the genre more than Friday the 13th. I couldn't be more excited for the opportunity to contribute a chapter to this iconic franchise, particularly with such fearless partners as Peacock and A24." Where was this guy when I needed someone growing up to relate to my worship of this titan of terror? While I'm still holding out for the next cinematic chapter in my favorite teen slasher franchise -- hopefully a second remake as opposed to the more prevalent "requel" -- it's heartening to know that after 16 painfully long years of lying dormant in a watery grave alongside its homicidal behemoth, the Friday the 13th franchise is slashing its way back to life, albeit in a small-screen capacity. 

Buckle on your hockey masks, sharpen your machetes, and slip into your swimsuits because this time, Jason is returning for real and with a vengeance as implacable as his mother's. Crystal Lake is set to splatter onto Peacock at a currently undisclosed date either later this year or sometime in 2026. 

What do you guys think? Are you excited for Peacock's revival of this era-defining slasher franchise, or would you prefer a theatrical resurrection? How do you feel about the prequel approach? Let me know in the comments as we await this impending addition to one of horror's most formidable -- and clearly unstoppable -- franchises.

Crucial Casting Update (July 18th): Crystal Lake has officially unmasked the identity of its pre-teen-slasher icon, Jason Voorhees: 11-year-old Callum Vinson, most notable for his role as Henry Collins, the youngest son of the President of the United States, in season 3 of Chucky. Vinson sports a much more adorable visage than his most recent predecessor, Caleb Guss, in the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th, though it's safe to assume that uncorrupted adorability will be heavily smothered in layers of disfiguring prosthetics to match the appearance of his character's 1980 originator, Ari Lehman. (According to IMDB, Zachary Branch has been cast as adult Jason, indicating we will witness the return of the goalie-faced killing machine in all his mother-avenging, machete-wielding glory.)

Announced alongside Vinson are Phoenix Parnevik as Barry Jackson, a counselor at Camp Crystal Lake and Claudette's boyfriend who will become Pamela Voorhees' first victim; Nick Cordileone as "Crazy" Ralph Neeley, the town drunk and self-described "messenger of God" who attempts to spread awareness about the "curse" of Crystal Lake to no avail; and Joy Suprano as an original character named Rita.