Brad Caleb Kane currently serves as co-showrunner on HBO's It: Welcome to Derry, but that's not the only iconic horror property he's worked on bringing to the small screen. Next up for the filmmaker is Peacock's Friday the 13th prequel, Crystal Lake, starring Linda Cardellini (Hawkeye) as Jason Voorhees' mother, Pamela.
It's previously been reported that she'll be portrayed as a woman who gave up her singing career to raise a child, Jason, who has special needs. Things take a dark turn when Jason drowns at summer camp—the titular "Crystal Lake"—prompting Pamela to go on a killing spree, making the camp counsellors pay for their negligence.
Of course, we know that when the young Jason witnesses one of the camp counsellors decapitating his mom, he's inspired to go on a murder spree of his own. There's a supernatural element to the character, and after somehow surviving his apparent drowning, Jason avenges his mother by killing, well, everyone.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly (via FearHQ.com), Kane said, "In many ways, it's a psychological thriller. It's a paranoid '70s thriller. It has all of the DNA of a slasher without quite being a slasher. There are rivers of blood in the show. There are very, I think, ingenious kill sequences and deaths and murders, but it's all done in service of character and theme and place and time."
Pushed on how Crystal Lake fits into the admittedly convoluted continuity of the Friday the 13th franchise, the showrunner added, "I tried to think about Crystal Lake and a Friday the 13th prequel as, 'What era did the first movie come out of?'"
"It came out of the paranoid '70s thriller era. It came out of the mistrust-of-institutions era. It came out of the women's lib era, the National Organization for Women era, this consciousness-raising awakening era in America. I wanted to go and play with all of those themes," he teased, adding that "[Cardellini is] gonna shock and surprise a lot of people."
"I think she's gonna get a lot of attention for this role. She's inconceivably brilliant in it. I can't really say any more," Kane concluded.
Crystal Lake won't be the first time this iconic horror franchise has been brought to television, as Friday the 13th: The Series aired between 1987 and 1990. The last time we saw Jason on our screens was in the 2009 reboot.
As noted, Brad Caleb Kane serves as creator, writer, showrunner and executive producer of the series. A premiere date for Crystal Lake has not been revealed, but it's eyeing a 2026 debut.