After laying dormant for over a decade, Jason Voorhees is being revived once again. Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to a Friday the 13th prequel television project that’s currently titled Crystal Lake, Variety is reporting.
Exact plot details for the series haven’t yet been revealed by the streaming service, although the project is being described as an expanded prequel. The origin story will be written by Star Trek: Discovery co-creator Bryan Fuller, who is also working as the showrunner and an executive producer on the project. The news comes after the Emmy Award-nominated television titan started developing a Friday the 13th project, originally as a feature film, in 2013.
“I discovered Friday the 13th in the pages of Famous Monsters magazine when I was 10 years old and I have been thinking about this story ever since,” said Fuller, who has made a name for creating or co-creating such series as Hannibal at NBC, Pushing Daisies at ABC, Dead Like Me at Showtime and American Gods at Starz.
“When it comes to horror, A24 raises the bar and pushes the envelope and I’m thrilled to be exploring the camp grounds of Crystal Lake under their banner. And Susan Rovner is simply the best at what she does. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be working with her again,” the showrunner-scribe-producer added.
Victor Miller, who penned the original movie in the franchise, will also executive produce the upcoming series, alongside Marc Toberoff and Rob Barsamian. A24 will also executive produce and serve as the studio behind Crystal Lake.
Miller and Toberoff, his attorney, were previously involved in a lengthy court case in an attempt to obtain the rights to the original film’s script for the screenwriter. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Miller’s favor last year, which gave him the U.S. rights to the screenplay.
However, they don’t have the rights to use any elements of the movies established after the original Friday the 13th, which includes Jason Vorhees’ trademark hockey mask. However, the filmmakers are able to explore prequels, as in the case of the Peacock show.
“Friday the 13th is one of the most iconic horror franchises in movie history and we were dying to revisit this story with our upcoming drama series Crystal Lake,” said Susan Rovner, the chairman of entertainment content for NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “We can’t wait to get to work with Bryan Fuller, a gifted, visionary creator who I’ve had the pleasure of being a longtime friend and collaborator, along with our incredible partners at A24, in this updated version for Peacock that will thrill long-standing fans of the franchise.”
The original Friday the 13th movie was released in 1980. In that film, Jason is a child who drowns at Camp Crystal Lake. His death leads his mother Pamela to seek revenge against the counselors she blamed for his death. It grossed nearly $60 million against a reported budget of $550,000.
Since the original movie, there have been eleven film sequels in the franchise, including Jason X; Freddy vs. Jason, which serves as a cross-over with fellow famed horror movie series, A Nightmare on Elm Street; and the 2009 reboot, which is the most recent entry to be released in the franchise.
Jason became the main antagonist beginning with the second film, 1981’s Friday the 13th Part 2. The original movie in the series, which was directed by Sean Cunningham, follows a group of teenage camp counselors who are murdered at Camp Crystal Lake.
The movie starred Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Laurie Bartram and Kevin Bacon. Palmer played Jason’s mother, Mrs. Vorhees, who initially killed a pair of counselors in 1959 at the camp after Jason supposedly drowned. She then went on another murder spree 20 years later when a group tries to reopen the camp. Jason turns up at the end to attempt to kill King’s character of Alice after she killed his mother.
Crystal Lake isn’t the first television show to air that’s based on the classic film franchise. Friday the 13th: The Series aired for three seasons in syndication between 1987 and 1990 from Frank Mancuso Jr. and Larry B. Williams. The show, which followed a pair of owners of a cursed antiques store, doesn’t feature Jason or any characters from the movies.