TheFriday the 13thfranchise is among the most iconic in horror, and its central killer Jason Voorhees is among the slasher elite, which makes his 15-year absence from the big screen all the more perplexing. The long-running movie series centers around Jason Voorhees, a seemingly unkillable monster whose overarching narrative has been rebooted or rerouted away from Camp Crystal Lake many times. While other storied horror movie franchises likeHalloween,Alien, andScreamhave continued to march on with new chapters and iterations every few years, theFriday the 13thfranchisehas remained completely dormant.
To be sure, noFriday the 13thmoviehas ever been a bastion of cinematic quality, nor has the box office gross ever been anything to write home about. However, in the age of streaming, it’s unusual for something that undoubtedly carries the nostalgic weight of an iconic franchise to go completely unexplored for more than 15 years. There actually isn’t one single reason as to why Jason Voorhees hasn’t picked up his machete in more than a decade–there are several.
Friday The 13th: Every Unmasked Jason Voorhees (In Chronological Order)
Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees has a mean streak, but fans should be thankful the horror icon hides his frightful façade behind a hockey mask.
It’s Now Been 15 Years Since A Friday The 13th Movie Released
The most recent was the 2009 reboot attempt
The most recent attempt at bringing Jason Voorhees back from the dead came in 2009, a full 15 years ago.Friday the 13th(2009) was set to act as a reboot for the franchise, and completely reset the timeline and continuity. The plot stayed relatively close to the first fewFriday the 13thmovies, with Jason acting as a sympathetic figure despite brutally murdering almost everyone he encounters. The movie actually became a box office hit, as it wound up earning over $92 million on a budget of just $19 million.
When it debuted in 2009,Friday the 13thactually broke the record for the best three-day weekend opening for a horror movie, surpassingThe Grudge(2004).
However, it suffered from the same issues as virtually all of its predecessors. Because it effectively just rehashed the first few movies of the franchise,it brought virtually nothing new to the table. Jason may have been a bit more on the lean side vs. the hulking brute that he evolved into earlier in the franchise, but the mask was literally made from a mold of theFriday the 13th Part IIImask. The movie was a critical flop, and despite grossing the second-highest total of the franchise, it did virtually nothing to inspire any studio to continue the story in earnest.
Why There Hasn’t Been Any New Friday The 13th Movies
The answer lies in multiple failures to launch and a lawsuit
While there was originally intended to be a follow-up to the 2009 reboot, trying economic times pushed it to the backburner for Warner Bros. Pictures, and eventually it faded out of existence.The franchise rights passed over to Paramount Pictures in 2013, and a new installment was put into motion almost immediately, this time as a found-footage movie. After more delays and directors/writers tagging in and out of the project, the movie, which had evolved into a reboot, was finally shelved in 2017, and rights passed back to Warner Bros. and New Line in 2018.
AllFriday the 13thFranchise Films
Friday the 13th
1980
$39.7 million
66%
Friday the 13th Part 2
1981
$21.7 million
33%
1982
$34.6 million
11%
1984
$33 million
21%
1985
$21.9 million
18%
1986
$19.5 million
53%
1988
$19.1 million
1989
$14.3 million
1993
$15.9 million
16%
2002
$13.1 million
20%
2003
$82.6 million
42%
2009
$65 million
25%
Within that time frame,the writer of the originalFriday the 13th, Victor Miller, sued for rights to the screenplay, which had existed with the company he originally worked for when he wrote the screenplay. Multiple years of legal back-and-forth further hindered anyFriday the 13thprojects from being made, with Miller finally gaining the rights in September 2021. In that time, a number of sequels and prequels were worked over, with titles includingJason Never Dies,Friday the 13th: The Beginning, andDiary of Pamela Voorhees, but ultimately nothing has ever gotten off the ground.
Will There Be More Friday The 13th Projects?
A TV series is already underway
Despite years of disappointments,the future forFriday the 13this brightthanks to one potential project in particular.AFriday the 13thprequel show titledCrystal Lakefirst came about in 2022 before seeming all but dead and buried in early 2024. However, the show is now back on track, and with the backing of ace low-budget production studio A24 behind it, the show seems extremely promising.Crystal Lakeis now being run by Brad Caleb Kane, who is also behind theITprequel showIT: Welcome to Derry, and is slated to air on Peacock.
Jason Voorhees may find his way back to the big screen in the near future as well. Sean S. Cunningham, director and producer of the originalFriday the 13th, along with writer Jeff Locker and producer Jeremy Weiss,has already pitched a reboot for the franchise. However, Cunningham has stated plainly that there won’t be anotherFriday the 13thmovie for at least another three years, so the earliest that Jason could make his grand return would be 2027.
Cast
Friday the 13th is a horror-slasher film by director Sean S. Cunningham and follows a group of camp counselors who are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer known to be the site of a child’s drowning and a grisly double murder. The film began a decades-long franchise that would eventually lead to the creation of Jason Vorhees, one of the most popular horror icons of all time.
