In an exclusive piece fromBloody Disgusting, co-creator of theFriday the 13thfranchise, Sean S. Cunningham, announced his plans earlier this year to get a reboot of the hockey-masked killer up and running. The news came after the franchise’s long-running legal disputes finally came to a head, ultimately granting Victor Miller the rights to the characters and story of the firstFriday the 13thfilm.
While the legality of a reboot remains up in the air as of this article, writer Jeff Locker has assuaged some concerns. Should the upcoming prequel seriesCrystal Lakedo well on Peacock, the duo is hoping that any bad blood between Cunningham and Miller will be put aside to give Jason the big-screen return he deserves. If not, a Plan B for a sequel to the original film is also in development.
TheFriday the 13thfranchise has spawned 12 feature-length films since 1980, but the last feature-length film was released in 2009, almost fifteen years ago. You could argue that, alongside the triumphant returns of Ghostface and Michael Meyers, now is the best time for Jason Voorhees to rise from the grave once again. But should we see aFriday the 13threboot come to fruition, what exactly do we want to see in it?
Update June 30, 2025: In honor of Friday the 13th, this article has been updated with even more details about what we want to see in Jason Voorhees’s next movie.
A Modernized Jason Voorhees
While reception to the 2009 reboot was mixed, most can agree that the version of Jason Voorhees it depicted — an agile, trap-making dweller of Camp Crystal Lake — was a welcome improvement. Jason himself has become something of amodern folklore character, a spirit that wanders the campgrounds in a perpetual state of anger. It would make sense, then, that he’d commandeer the grounds and litter it with traps that only he could narrowly avoid. It gives him a calculated edge while making Camp Crystal Lake a legitimately dangerous location to run around in.
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Even if a new reboot doesn’t go down that exact path, we have an idea of what a modernized, remade Jason Voorhees could look like. The slow, lumbering killer has been thoroughly played out.Maybe give the character some more agency. Make Jason utilize his supernatural nature a little more prominently. Humanize Jason, or maybe even make him more of a figure than a tangible person. The concluding film in the recentHalloweentrilogy,Halloween Ends, accomplished something similar to great success.
Getting Back to Basics
The way films are made now is completely different compared to when Jason stomped around Camp Crystal Lake. If you were to marathon theFriday the 13thfilms, chances are you’d be put off bythe number of inconsistencies, retroactive changes, and other bizarre changes that are only ever brought up once and then brazenly forgotten about.
Remember when Jason somehow turned into a child at the end ofPart 8, only to somehow return as a full-grown man inThe Final Friday? Water is supposedly meant to scare Jason, yet in several moments throughout the series, it never seems to faze him until it magically becomes a major plot point inFreddy vs Jason.What about the multiple people throughout the series with psychic powers? How aboutThe Final Friday,where Jason’s spirit is all of a sudden the thing to worry about, and it can only be killed through the use of a magical dagger? Bythe time Jason goes to space, you wouldn’t even really be shocked, considering the franchise already had no regard for its own continuity.
But why would they? It’s hard to salvage something already so far gone, and without a plan in place to naturally guide the character through multiple films, you may’t exactly blame them for throwing just about everything they could at the wall. Areboot ofFriday the 13thwould allow the franchise to get back to its roots, ignoring the years of messy fluff that made up the first ten entries while setting a stable plan for future films.
A Fresh Take on His Victims
Let’s face it. Jason always stalks and slaughters the same type of people in each movie — drunk or highly sexually charged young people partying in the woods, with a few exceptions. The survivors are usually the ones who stray from that crowd, which has so far made the final girls and endings predictable. Obviously, Crystal Lake is Jason’s territory, and he’s even a legend shared around campfires there. What about the locals who know and fear him? Why haven’t they formed a posse to hunt him down and drive him away? That answer could prove interesting in a new sequel or reboot.
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Some of Jason’s most memorable kills happened when he strayed from his typical victims. Think the yuppies on a wilderness retreat and team-building exercise inPart VI: Jason Lives. They were innocents who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It would be a subversion of viewer expectations to have a group of more mature (and mature-acting) adults fall prey to the machete-wielding killer next time, especially if they fell into the sympathetic and likable category. Making likable characters audiences has the ability to make Jason scary, as it means they are no longer rooting for the killer but are now hoping he does not kill the victims. One thing the newChuckyseries has done so well has been to introduce a new set of likable characters audiences can connect with, andFriday the 13thcould learn the same lesson.
Legacy Characters
While we did say earlier the best bet is to toss all the continuity aside and start fresh, it is hard to argue the more popular (and profitable trend) is making sequels that bring back legacy characters from earlier in the franchise return to pay fan service to long-time viewers. ForFriday the 13th, there is no better legacy character than Tommy Jarvis, who has been a prominent foil for Jason sinceCorey Feldman played a young version of himinPart IV. Thom Matthews played an older version inPart VI, and he’s even revised the role in recent fan-made short films, proving there’s a demand to see him return.
Did he and Megan (Jennifer Cooke) ever become a couple? If so, their child could be a young adult now—giving a perfect reason to bring the two characters back along with new leads. Perhaps a therapist hoping to aid in their treatment encourages all living survivors to gather and return to Crystal Lake for closure, only to discover Jason is still roaming the area. There are so many possibilities to include legacy characters, there’s really no excuse not to do so.
Inspiration from Other Franchises
Much like how Ghostface and Michael Meyers hit it out of the park with their respective comebacks, we can possibly expect theFriday the 13threboot to adopt a similar approach. After all, seeing as how the franchise took direct inspiration fromHalloweento begin with, it’d be appropriate. We just have to hope it’d be less blatant than the recentTexas Chainsaw Massacrereboot.
A time skip to the modern day, for example, opens the door for many opportunities beyond just creative kills. The reboot could comment on its own legacy by having teens laugh off the idea of a machete-wielding maniac, or it could highlight a bizarre sub-culture of those obsessed with true-crime stories and spreekillers. Relatives of slaughtered camp counselors could confront a possible dramatization of their real tragedy, tackling how amonstrous killer became a pop-culture iconthat people dress up as on Halloween.
There is also exploring other horror genres or formats to spice things up. While the idea of a found footage version was floated in the 2010s, andfans rejected the concept, it holds some weight as it frames Jason as a mysterious killer in the woods that people are trying to film and could give the movie a real documentary/true crime feel.
The other angle is a more art-house horror film,similar to the offerings of A24. While theFriday the 13thfilms were seen as quick cash grabs in the 1980s, bringing on a prestige horror director not only could elevate the material but also bring with it a sense of excitement to the project of something never before seen. A new Friday the 13th is exciting, but one directed by, say,The Babadook’s Jennifer Kent orThe Witch’s Robert Eggers makes the film more exciting.
There’s a lot you could do with Jason Voorhees beyond just having him kill teenagers. While that’s what the lumbering Crystal Lake killer is most closely associated with, the average moviegoer nowadays wants something with a bit more depth to tide their interest. Even fans of the franchise as is would likely agree that the series needs some kind of new spark to keep it alive. Should the upcoming prequel seriesCrystal Lakesomehow fail to accomplish this, let’s hope that a reboot could fill the void left by 14 years of legal conflicts.
