Jason Voorhees’ Friday The 13th Return Teased By Series Creator: “He Did Have Another Mask…”

The creator of Crystal Lake has weighed in on the possibility of Jason Voorhees appearing in the show. The upcoming Crystal Lake Peacock series is being produced by A24 and will be set before the events of the Friday the 13th franchise.

The show will explore the earlier years of Jason Voorhees’ mother, Pamela (Linda Cardellini), who was the killer in the original 1980 movie before her son stepped in as the primary antagonist in the majority of the movie’s sequels.

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan on the IT: Welcome to Derry red carpet, Crystal Lake creator and showrunner Brad Caleb Kane discussed if Jason would appear in the Peacock show. While he confirmed that the “absolutely brilliant” Linda Cardellini is playing Mrs. Voorhees, he said that “I can’t say whether or not Jason is actually in it.“

However, he hinted that “Jason might be in it,” saying that “I don’t know if I’d want to do a Friday the 13th without a Jason in it.“

He was more conclusive about the idea that Jason Voorhees’ iconic hockey mask will probably not appear in the series. While the mask is an important visual element of the character, Jason did not acquire it until 1982’s Friday the 13th Part III, which takes place at least 10 years after the events of Crystal Lake.

Regardless, Kane offered a reminder that “he had another mask in earlier incarnations” and that “he was a little boy who drowned at Crystal Lake.” He teased that “maybe we’ll see a little bit of that,” because the show is “really about the mother and son, and what happens on the other side of the drowning.“

Ultimately, it remains to be seen how Crystal Lake reconciles the fact that Mrs. Voorhees’ motivation to become a killer came from the fact that Jason drowned as a child, but he eventually returned as a living adult in 1981’s Friday the 13th Part 2.

Jason was depicted as a largely indestructible but living character from the second film through the fourth, 1984’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, before becoming undead in 1986’s Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

It seems likely that the other mask that Kane is referring to is the sack with a single eyehole that Jason dons in Part 2 before he eschews it in favor of the hockey mask in the remaining Friday the 13th movies. It stands to reason that this may have been the younger Jason’s preferred facial covering.

However, given the fact that Crystal Lake largely takes place after Jason drowned as a child, it is entirely possible that he does not appear in the series at all.

The timeline that Kane lays out suggests that the show will follow Mrs. Voorhees grappling with her grief and preparing to kill the counselors Barry and Claudette, who are murdered in the opening prologue of the original movie, just one year after Jason’s death.

However, given Kane’s somewhat cagey answer, it ultimately seems probable that Jason will at the very least appear in flashbacks that help define Pamela’s character in Crystal Lake. Given what a central character he is in the Friday the 13th franchise, and in Pamela Voorhees’ murderous rage, he will play a major role in her story, whether he is onscreen or offscreen.

Network

Peacock

Showrunner

Brad Caleb Kane

Writers

Brad Caleb Kane

• Linda Cardellini

  Pamela Voorhees