One of the most famous killer series is returning, but without its iconic killer. Friday the 13th is having a prequel series at Peacock, which will be written and shown by Bryan Fuller, called Gem Lake.
The series will take place at some point before the first movie, but there won’t be Jason or his signature hockey mask thanks to the sequel. Legal battle over franchising. Basically, thanks to some weird contracts and a few protracted court battles, the rights to the series were split between two separate people, one who owned the first movie and the other who owned next part.
But like ScreamingGhostface’s wants us to remember, Jason wasn’t the killer in the first movie – it was his mother. So while we can certainly get a Mrs. Voorhees in the prequel series, don’t expect Jason himself to show up or commit any murders. With that said, the idea of a summer camp is regularly stalked by killers Voorhees Diversity or otherwise is probably still quite fertile ground for a horror series.
Friday the 13th far from the first slasher series to get its own spinoff series. In the early 2010s, there were also spin-offs and prequels for Screaming, Mentaland even Bryan Fuller’s own Hannibal. Perhaps even more surprising, the series itself mostly ranges from good to great, which at least makes this new project interesting. In fact, there is even a Friday the 13th show, called Friday the 13th: The Seriesaired in the late 80s and has been more or less forgotten since then.
Fuller is a veteran television artist who has created a number of shows over the past 20 years, including Die like me, Star Trek: Discovery, American Godsand the foregoing Hannibal. Also behind Gem Lake will be A24, while known for its movies is also the studio behind HBO Happiness. Still no word on timing Gem Lake maybe out, but maybe more than a year.
