Friday the 13th Prequel Series Crystal Lake Still in Development, Despite Cancellation Reports

Fans of the beloved Friday the 13th slasher series have been without a Jason Voorhees movie for 15 years, and that stretch will continue into the foreseeable future. There has been a glimmer of hope for the franchise's immediate future, however, as Peacock and A24 have been developing a Jason-less prequel series called Crystal Lake. That show, which comes from executive producer Bryan Fuller and was announced back in 2022, has been the subject of some conflicting reports over the last couple of days.

Chatter surfaced on Monday night that A24 had pulled the plug on Crystal Lake, effectively cancelling the series while it was still in development. According to Bloody Disgusting, that's not actually the case.

A report from Bloody Disgusting on Tuesday claims Crystal Lake is still very much in development. The site claims that sources indicate A24 has not axed the project and confirm that it is still moving forward, but there are some changes and retooling happening behind the scenes. There is no concrete information regarding those changes at this time.

Peacock made a big commitment to Crystal Lake back in 2022 when the show was first announced. The NBCUniversal streaming service won a bidding war for the property by making a substantial financial commitment, ordering it directly to series and agreeing to a hefty penalty if the show didn't get a second season. So Crystal Lake received what is essentially a two-season order, without even casting stars or rolling cameras.

Hannibal's Bryan Fuller was set to serve as showrunner, writer, director, and executive producer on the series, but there's no telling if his involvement could be part of the behind-the-scenes shakeup Bloody Disgusting alluded to. When the series was first ordered, Fuller spoke to Fangoria about bringing it to life at Peacock.

"One of the things that is super exciting and one of the many reasons that we went with Peacock is that they blew every other competitor out of the water," Fuller said. "There was a bidding war on this, and they came in strong and gave us a full-season commitment with a huge penalty if we don't do a second season. So it's kind of a two-season commitment, but really just the first-season commitment. We're going to have roughly five times the per-episode budget that we had on Hannibal."

"It will absolutely be recognizable for the hardcore Friday the 13th fans, but will also have an appeal to people who are simply interested in top-shelf TV storytelling," he added.