I’ve already talked about the new Crystal Lake trailer several times, but there’s so much packed into it that one […]
I’ve already talked about the new Crystal Laketrailer several times, but there’s so much packed into it that one detail deserves its own conversation: How many different versions of Jason are we actually looking at?
Going frame by frame, I counted three apparent looks at Jason. Factor in the boy before his drowning, and we could be looking at four different stages of his life.
That’s a pretty massive possibility for Peacock and A24’s Friday the 13th prequel, which drops all eight episodes on October 15.
The series follows Pamela Voorhees, played by Linda Cardellini, in the aftermath of losing her son. But the full trailer, which we’ve broken down here on Dread Central, suggests Jason’s role could extend well beyond the tragedy that sends his mother spiraling.
Here’s what I’m seeing:
Jason before the drowning (see below). The young boy whose relationship with Pamela gives the story its emotional foundation. We’ve already had teases of this part of his life.
The blurry young Jason. One shot looks almost like someone opening their eyes before their vision has focused. Is this a memory, a nightmare, or someone actually seeing him?
The boy in the woods. This is the clearest look at his face in the trailer, and to my eyes, he appears slightly older. He’s standing out there in those tattered clothes, raising the obvious question of whether he’s been surviving alone.
Baghead Jason. Near the end, there’s a blink-and-you-miss-it glimpse of what appears to be Jason running through the woods with a machete and a sack over his head. For longtime fans, that might be the highlight of the entire trailer.
These could be different ages, or the editing could be mixing reality, memories, and visions. But taken together, they have me wondering whether we’re about to watch Jason grow into the killer we know.
Creator Brad Caleb Kane (It: Welcome to Derry) has already given us a pretty substantial reason to think so, telling Empire Magazine: “All the Jason-as-slasher stuff hits much later in the season. But when it hits, it hits hard.”
Now put that alongside the reported eight-year gap between the series’ setting and the original movie. Eight episodes. Potentially eight years to cover.
What if each episode moves us forward roughly a year?
That’s my theory, not an announced structure. But it would allow the series to follow Pamela’s grief while Jason ages somewhere beyond her reach, eventually bringing both stories to the same terrible night.
I’m calling my shot: The finale could essentially become a new version of Sean S. Cunningham’s original Friday the 13th.
Pamela’s familiar blue sweater, particularly that trailer image of her bloodied beside the fire, keeps pulling me back to this. Imagine spending the season watching her become the woman from the 1980 movie while her son becomes the figure who will eventually carry the franchise.
Depending on his starting age and the actual passage of time, Jason could be a teenager or young adult by then. And I can absolutely buy a towering teenage Jason. He doesn’t need to have the bulk of his later incarnations to be terrifying.
The question that makes this interesting is also the one the series would need to answer: If he survived the lake, why didn’t he go home?
If Pamela is killing because she believes her son is dead while he’s living nearby, that’s an awful, fascinating tragedy. If he then witnesses her death, the season could end with the mother’s story closing and the son’s taking over. Friday the 13th Part 2 already ties Jason’s violence to losing Pamela; this could put that transition directly onscreen.
And if a second season gets ordered, where does that leave us? A retelling of Part 2? A completely different continuation? A new path toward the hockey mask?
The rights situation doesn’t give us a simple answer. Back in 2022, then-showrunner Bryan Fuller told Fangoria that the series had broad access to the franchise through its streaming rights, distinguishing those from the movie rights. That predates Kane’s version, but it means we shouldn’t assume the show is restricted to the original screenplay or must invent a new mask.
Creatively, though, it could still choose a different direction. With Jason Universe simultaneously promoting its own updated look for the character, I’m curious whether these projects eventually share a visual identity or keep doing their own things.
For now, those apparent versions of Jason have given me a million questions. Are we watching him age? Is Baghead Jason the season’s destination, or another misleading glimpse? And if Pamela’s massacre closes the season, what do you want waiting on the other side?
