New Friday the 13th movie in the works from Jason Universe team

A new Friday the 13th movie is in the works, assembled by the team behind Jason Universe, according to slashfilm.com. The exact shape of the project remains unknown, and at least one director has already pitched his take on a new film for the franchise.

Jason Universe is a cross-platform expansion effort launched in 2024 in partnership with Victor Miller, who wrote the original Friday the 13th. The initiative covers more than film, but the new movie marks one of its most direct returns to the series' cinematic roots.

How that film will sit alongside Peacock's Crystal Lake is an open question. Season 1 of the prequel series has been released, and it sets most of its story in 1972, eight years before the original film. The season also establishes its own canon: Jason Voorhees is portrayed as a bioengineered mutant with cockroach-like abilities, and Elias, played by Hamish Linklater, is identified as Jason's father. Linda Cardellini plays Pamela Voorhees.

Crystal Lake showrunner Brad Caleb Kane has teased plans for a second season. Whether the series and the new film will share continuity has not been stated.

A franchise with a long gap

The series has taken several forms over the years. A Friday the 13th remake reached theaters in 2009 and performed well at the box office. Before that, the franchise was tied up in a messy lawsuit that blocked new projects for years; in 2021 it looked as though the legal case might be over, though the outcome was not simple. Jason Universe launched in 2024. Last year's Sweet Revenge short film was the only recent Friday the 13th-related release before Crystal Lake.

Elsewhere, a comparable split played out when a Child's Play reboot arrived in theaters in 2019 while a Chucky TV show was in development; the series continued and the remake did not get a sequel.