‘Friday the 13th’ TV Series Update: Can Jason Voorhees Appear in the Peacock Series?

John Squires

Halloween brought along with it the huge news that Peacock, Bryan Fuller (“Hannibal”), and A24 are hard at work on “Crystal Lake,” a streaming series that will serve as an expanded prequel to the Friday the 13th franchise. The announcement comes in the wake of several years worth of legal troubles for the franchise, but where exactly do things stand at this time?

And more importantly, which elements from the Friday the 13th franchise can be used in “Crystal Lake”? We’ve got an exciting update on all things Friday the 13th for you today.

To recap the franchise’s legal issues, Sean Cunningham, the original movie’s director, and Victor Miller, the original movie’s writer, have been fighting over who gets control of what.

It was back in 2018 that a judge ruled Victor Miller owns the rights to the original Friday the 13th screenplay in the United States, a decision Cunningham has failed to overturn in the years that have followed. Cunningham, however, owned the character of adult Jason Voorhees, introduced in later sequels, which is why the franchise has long been at a legal standstill.

But Variety added an interesting wrinkle to their “Crystal Lake” story late last night, noting that Rob Barsamian AND Victor Miller are executive producing the Peacock series. Barsamian is the man behind the company Horror, Inc., the rights holders of the Friday the 13th elements that Victor Miller doesn’t own. The rights we assumed only Cunningham had control of.

According to Variety’s aforementioned update, this means that the “Crystal Lake” series now “has access to all of the other elements from the films,” suggesting that the combined forces of Victor Miller and Rob Barsamian will allow the Peacock series to use anything it wants to. That includes locations and characters, notably adult Jason Voorhees and his hockey mask.

This updated information has been corroborated by Bloody Disgusting’s sources, as of this writing, and also touched upon by Friday the 13th Part III star/entertainment lawyer Larry Zerner, who has long been our main source of intel on the franchise’s messy legal troubles.

Zerner tweeted last night, “A little legal info on the TV deal (Reminder: I don’t represent Victor Miller or Horror, Inc.). The TV show is being produced by both Victor AND Horror, Inc. Do you see in the article where it says that Victor and Rob Barsamian will exec. produce.”

He adds, “Rob IS Horror Inc. (not Sean).”

Zerner’s tweet suggests, much like Variety’s report, that Sean Cunningham isn’t the decision-maker in this one as we thought, but rather Rob Barsamian holds the keys to Crystal Lake.

Long story short? As far as we can tell, Peacock’s “Crystal Lake” can do whatever it wants with the Friday franchise, a dream for fans who have been waiting 13 YEARS for Jason Voorhees to return to the screen. We still have no idea what form the series will take, or which elements it even desires to use, but we’ll of course keep you updated as we continue to learn more.

One thing’s for certain in the world of Friday the 13th: the rights are increasingly complicated and we’ll likely have more updates to this story in the coming months. Stay tuned.

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