This is an exciting year for Friday the 13th fans. A new movie is in the works to be released next year, there's a new video game on the way, and a TV series is in the works. Now we're finally finding out what that show will be about.
Creator Sean S. Cunningham, who will executive produce the new series Friday the 13th: Crystal Lake Chronicles, revealed the plot of the upcoming series at Monster Mania this weekend, according to Fridaythe13thfranchise.com.
According to Cunningham, the series will focus on the "real" city of Crystal Lake and how it was affected by the Friday the 13th films. Yes, the new show will take place in a universe where the Friday the 13th movies exist. And no, there's no real city of Crystal Lake that this is based on.
Within this show's universe, the Friday the 13th movies will have been based on actual killings, so that allows the creators to take Jason into the real world and outside of the universe of the movie franchise.
The CW has evidently expressed interest in the show, though they have not officially picked it up. According to IGN the series would focus on the characters of Crystal Lake and have a Smallville feel to it.
This is definitely a pretty interesting premise, and if nothing else it will definitely be a fresh take on the franchise. We've seen this sort of thing before with horror franchises being brought into the real world, like with Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which takes place in the real world where the Nightmare on Elm Street movies exist and Freddy Krueger comes after the actors and producers of the movies.
The show also sounds somewhat reminiscent of the Scream franchise, where within the film's universe a movie series called Stab is made based on the actual killings in the movie. Within the Friday the 13th TV show then, it's as if the Friday the 13th movies we've seen are the Stab movies, and now we're shifting gears and looking at the real universe.
The TV show is expected to kick into production later this year. It probably won't hit the airwaves for a bit, but for now we have the next movie to look forward to. As we previously reported, the new movie will explore Jason's immortality and trying to figure out how exactly he keeps coming back again and again. The movie will be released on May 13, 2016.