Word on the street is that film studio A24 might not be going forward with its planned Peacock Friday the 13th TV series called Crystal Lake according to insider Jeff Sneider.
via: Movie Web
First announced in late 2022, the prequel series was expected to premiere in late 2024/2025 on Peacock, and feature original final girl Adrienne King returning to Camp Blood where it all started, but now it seems as if Jason Voorhees is once again dead in the water. The series was to be produced by A24 along with Bryan Fuller (Hannibal), who would also serve as showrunner and writer.
According to Jeff Sneider of The InSneider, he says that while he’s hearing reports that A24 pulled the plug on Crystal Lake, he’s unsure whether this is a permanent decision or not. A24 had no comment, and Sneider, like the rest of the horror fandom, is awaiting more info, possibly from Peacock, to perhaps shed some light on the situation. Check out his comments below.
"I’m hearing that A24 has pulled the plug on Crystal Lake , its planned Peacock series based on the Friday the 13th franchise featuring masked killer Jason Voorhees. Bryan Fuller was due to executive produce the horror series. It’s unclear whether this is a permanent decision or a temporary one, as A24 had no comment. Perhaps Peacock will help the trades shed more light on this project, which was announced back in 2022."
Since the announcement of the Crystal Lake prequel series, little info had come out regarding writing and production, with a few sporadic briefings here and there. The series was last given an update by Adrienne King in March 2023, when she shared a photo of herself and Bryan Fuller on her Instagram while commenting on how well one of their recent meetings went. Check out the photo and update below.
Little was known about Crystal Lake, other than that it would serve as a prequel to the original 1980 film directed by Sean Cunningham, but even that concept was shrouded in mystery by Bryan Fuller himself. When Fuller spoke on the podcast, The Kingcast, back in 2022, he told host Scott Wampler that, “I would say it’s less a prequel series than a… pre-remake-uel series.” This could’ve meant any number of things, including the possibility that the series might have been set in modern times to align with the 2009 remake by Platinum Dunes.
When he was asked which elements of the Friday the 13th movies he could pull from for inspiration, Fuller responded that nothing was off limits, including the events in the infamous sequels, Jason X (which saw Jason Voorhees travel to outer space), and Jason Goes to Hell, which saw Voorhees’ backstory retconned to give him a sister, and made it so that only a member of his bloodline could permanently destroy him via a mystical dagger.
"Everything. We can use everything . We can go to Hell, we can go to space. That’s not to say that we will do those things … although if we do go 10 seasons, I will be lobbying hard to go to space."
Unfortunately for horror fans, if reports prove accurate, it doesn't look like Jason Voorhees or the Friday the 13th franchise will be heading back to space any time soon, or to the small screen, for that matter.
If you are as bummed by this news as I am and are in need of your Jason fix, Friday the 13th Parts 1-8 , and the 2009 reboot are streaming on MAX. Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X can be streamed via Showtime. Freddy vs. Jason is unavailable to stream at this time.
I was really looking forward to seeing this series, because it's been quite sometime (15 years to be exact) since we've seen Jason on our screens.
I hope this will be a situation similar to Daredevil where halfway through shooting their season they opted to scrap their original idea and reshoot the show, and that down the road we will get Crystal Lake on our TV screens.
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