Friday the 13th prequel Crystal Lake will debut this fall on Peacock

Image courtesy of Paramount

Get ready to head back to Crystal Lake, campers. The Friday the 13th prequel, Crystal Lake, finally has a premiere date. The series will debut on October 15 on Peacock. The streamer made the announcement this morning.

The show stars Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees, mother of everyone's favorite hocky-masked killer, Jason Voorhees. The series will follow her life prior to the events of the first Friday the 13th movie. The series will also star William Catlett as Levon Brooks, though his character's details remain under wraps for now. Other cast members include Callum Vinson (Chucky) as young Jason, Cameron Scoggins (Nashville), Devin Kessler (Godfather of Harlem), Gwendolyn Sundstrom, Nick Cordileone (Warrior), Joy Suprano (Fleishman Is in Trouble), Danielle Kotch (Sinister), Christopher Denham (Shining Girls), Nancy Nagrant (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and Phoenix Parnevik.

The premiere date is welcome news to Friday the 13th fans. Unlike other slasher franchises, most notably Scream, Friday the 13th has been in limbo for a long time. The last movie was the 2009 remake, and since then, the franchise has been held up in lawsuits and other legal woes, but finally, new projects are moving forward. Crystal Lake will be the first new content in that universe in a long time.

While the entirety of the plot is unknown at this time, we do know that it'll focus on Pamela forgoing her singing career to take care of her special needs child. Because Jason is already cast, it's evident that the series will also explore his origin story. Additionally, Crystal Lake showrunner Brad Caleb shared a first-look image of Jason's make-up on his social media just last week, before teasing today's news. Though the image only showed the back of Jason's head, it certainly looks like what horror special effects legend Tom Savini created for the first film.

While it's been a long time since Jason slashed his way into theaters, the franchise's creator and first director, Sean S. Cunningham, told TMZ back in March that the film treatment for an "old school" Friday the 13th movie is done, but nothing has moved forward yet. It's also unclear how the potential merger of Paramount and Warner may affect the rights because Paramount owns the rights to the first eight films, while Warner owns the rights to the later movies. It is possible a merger could make greenlighting a new film easier.

For now, at least, the prequel has a premiere date and Friday the 13th fans will have something new to look forward to this October.

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