Jason Voorhees is heading back to the big screen. A new Friday the 13th film is in development for a 2027 release. It will be the 13th entry in the slasher series and the first new movie since the 2009 reboot. The director is Steve Miner, who has a long history with the franchise. David Fliegel is writing the screenplay.
Miner is an obvious choice for a series that needs to rebuild trust with longtime fans. He directed Friday the 13th Part 2 in 1981, the film that first made Jason the killer. He came back the next year for Part III, the 3D sequel that gave Jason his hockey mask. He also directed Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998, so he has already returned to an aging horror franchise once before. Hiring him more than four decades after his first Crystal Lake film tells you what the producers want: a connection to the classic films rather than another attempt to reinvent them.
The Barsamian family will finance and produce the film through Horror, Inc., the company that controls the franchise. In 2024, Horror, Inc. launched what it calls the Jason Universe, a plan to bring the property back across several formats. For most of the gap since 2009, a long legal dispute over the rights to the original screenplay kept new Jason projects on hold. A new feature film is the clearest sign yet that the revival is actually happening.
The film also follows Crystal Lake, the prequel series that premiered on Peacock in October. Linda Cardellini stars as Pamela Voorhees, and showrunner Brad Caleb Kane has strong knowledge of the original films. The show had Peacock’s fourth-best debut for a scripted original. Any decent showing would have helped this film, and that strong start gives the theatrical project a lot more momentum.
The bigger picture is that old horror brands are coming back in a big way. Illfonic’s Halloween: The Game came out in September. Saber’s Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival followed in October. Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series on Prime Video has been renewed for a second season, and Paramount is reportedly considering a return to A Nightmare on Elm Street. Studios clearly think familiar villains still sell, and Jason may be the best-known of them all.
Plot details, casting and a firm release date haven’t been announced yet. It’s also unclear whether the film will tie into Crystal Lake or stand on its own. That choice will show whether Horror, Inc. is building a connected universe or simply restarting the series again.