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It has been nearly 16 years since Jason Voorhees last graced the big screen in 2009’s Friday the 13th remake, but who’s counting? Well, I’m counting and I have to assume a great many other slasher fans out there are as well. The bad news is that, last we heard, a new Friday the 13th movie still isn’t happening any time soon. The good news is that there is some stuff to look forward to, according to franchise co-creature Sean S. Cunningham.
Cunningham, who directed the original 1980 slasher classic and has been a key producer of the franchise over the years, recently spoke about the future of the franchise at Silver Scream Con in Worcester, Massachusetts (via Bloody Disgusting). First up, Cunningham addressed the status of the Crystal Lake TV show, which is currently in the works for Peacock from A24. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“Last I heard, they’re talking about shooting it in Australia at the end of this year and releasing on Halloween 2025. But I’ve heard versions of that story for so long, I don’t put a lot of credibility into it. There’s just so many things that can go sideways.”
The series has been in the works for a couple of years and originally had Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) on board as the showrunner with a two-season commitment at Peacock. Cunningham called Fuller a “very good writer” but, as fans are likely aware, Fuller exited the series earlier this year, with Brad Caleb Kane (Black Sails) coming on board as the new showrunner of Crystal Lake. Cunningham also ran through that behind-the-scenes drama a bit.
“Bryan got the job, and it was greenlit. It was going forward, they started to set up the writers’ room, and they didn’t like the road he was going down. They felt it was gonna be too dark. So they abandoned it and then hired another writer.”
As Cunningham tells it, Fuller’s version was going to be too dark. Hopefully, Kane can still do something compelling with the material. Moving on, Cunningham also explained that they were trying to make a different Jason-centric TV show at one point. “We were trying to do a TV series, which we actually got pretty far down the road on,” Cunningham explained. “I was very happy with that. I thought it was going to be a lot of fun, and then the rights thing blew up and the TV series got postponed, and then the pandemic arrived.” He then also broke down a scene that would have appeared in the scrapped show.
“A bunch of kids – 8, 9 years old – are out on the ice playing peewee hockey. One kid does a breakaway, skates down, and who’s in the net but Jason. He tries to shoot, Jason blocks it. The kid who’s trailing scores the goal, and they go, ‘Yay!’ And Jason’s pissed. He starts chopping at the kids and the ice starts to crack, and then we cut out of that. The explanation would be that kids in the high school had shot this video as a joke, and it was going viral on the internet. But I thought it was so silly and so much fun. I wish we’d gotten a chance to shoot it.”
Last – but certainly not least – Cunningham talked about the future a bit more broadly, including the new Friday the 13th game that is in the works, which we first learned about last year. There’s also the whole somewhat ill-defined Jason Universe, which launched earlier this year. Cunningham simply made it clear that “there’s more to come” for fans fo the franchise.
“There always seems to be a desire to have another Friday the 13th movie, which would have a distinct life from the TV series. For sure, Jason’s gonna show up in more video games. We had a really nice run with the first video game.”
Crystal Lake does not currently have a release date but stay tuned. For more, get the details on the Friday the 13th double feature happening on The Last Drive-In next month.
