Despite initial behind-the-scenes turmoil for Peacock’s Crystal Lake, it looks like the Friday the 13th prequel series is back on again with a new showrunner. Deadline is reporting that Brad Caleb Kane is taking the reins from Bryan Fuller and will serve not just as showrunner, but as Crystal Lake’s creator, writer, and executive producer.
First announced in October 2022, Crystal Lake’s plot specifics are being kept under wraps. This is the first major IP-driven project for A24, as it attempts to expand towards a more commercial and wide-range appeal. Victor Miller, the writer of the original 1980 horror classic, will also executive produce alongside Kane, and others.
“Nothing defined my childhood more than growing up in the golden age of the slasher flick, and nothing’s defined the genre more than Friday The 13th,” Kane said in a statement (via Deadline). “I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to contribute a chapter to this iconic franchise, particularly with such fearless partners as Peacock and A24.”
Kane recently served as co-showrunner and executive producer of another horror prequel series, It: Welcome to Derry, premiering next year over at HBO. It will be an original series with brand-new material based on the Andy Muschietti-directed films, and the Stephen King original novel.
Crystal Lake is not the first Friday the 13th television series as the short-lived, strangely-titled Friday the 13th: The Series aired for three seasons from 1987 to 1990 and had no ties to the movies at all. The new series will also be the first new project connected to the lore since 2009’s Friday the 13th reboot. To date, there have been 12 Friday the 13th films, with the original helping usher in the slasher era of horror in the 1980s.
