‘Crystal Lake’ Showrunner Knows Some Fans Will “Have Their Machetes Out” Over Jason’s New Origin [Exclusive]

Brad Caleb Kane knows his take on Jason Voorhees is going to upset some Friday the 13th fans. In Daniel Kurland’s forthcoming interview with the Crystal Lake showrunner for Dread Central, Kane defended the new origin while acknowledging that some viewers will “have their machetes out.”

Spoilers follow for Crystal Lake, now streaming all eight episodes on Peacock.

The series ties Jason’s origins to experimentation aimed at creating a human capable of surviving nuclear war. That’s the simplest way to explain a revelation the show spends an entire episode unpacking, giving Jason a backstory that, to me, really does Stranger Things it up.

You can understand why fans were making the Eleven comparisons, even though Kane previously pushed back against that interpretation. His explanation now is that the inspiration comes from real abuses of institutional power.

“It’s important to understand that it’s not science fiction. It’s science fact,” Kane tells Dread Central. “In this case, this isn’t the government doing all this. It’s corporations. It’s companies that work to extract pharmaceutical gains and all that kind of stuff.

“I just applied it to the Jason Voorhees origin story,” he adds. “It seemed like a very natural place to go with this.”

Kane also recognizes that giving Jason this explanation changes something fans may have preferred to leave mysterious.

“Now, I know that some fans will have their machetes out because they like Jason to be a revenant, mysterious, and supernatural. I grant them that, and that’s fine. I’ll take the slings and arrows. I took a swing, but I didn’t send him to Hell. I didn’t send him to space. I didn’t put him up against Carrie White — all things that people have done in this series. I took a much more grounded swing.”