It’s been almost a decade now since a new Friday the 13th movie made it to cinemas, and going by the recent legal messiness around the property, we may still have some wait ahead of us. But should Jason Voorhees ever be free for further films, Ryan Turek of Blumhouse Productions would be happy to give the franchise a shot.
The producer has already been involved in one unusually well received slasher reboot with last year’s Halloween, and in an interview with Screen Rant, Turek speculated on how he might handle Friday the 13th if the opportunity ever arose:
“That’s a tricky one as well. I’m in the minority when it comes to Friday the 13th 2009, I think. I think that is a terrific mixtape of all Friday the 13th films. You know, where it kind of embraces 1 and 3 and some of the other favorites. How do you do Friday the 13th? I don’t know man, it would take a little bit of a conversation but for us, at Blumhouse, what it’s really about is finding that director or writer/director – that creative team that just has a brilliant idea.”
For longtime fans of the series, hearing Turek defend the 2009 Friday reboot may not be an especially encouraging sign should he ever be in a position to bring back the series. Nonetheless, the producer also showed at least as much affection for the franchise’s three-film run from 1984’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter to 1986’s Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, explaining that he’d like to see a certain Tommy Jarvis make a comeback:
“I would love to see the return of Tommy Jarvis, but that’s just my own fan wish. Because that was a great trilogy – 4, 5, and 6. I’m the biggest fan of 6 there can be. Tommy’s the staple of the Friday franchise. Someone will get it at some point and hopefully deliver the goods.”
Tommy Jarvis just might be the most famous protagonist of the series, having been played by multiple actors over the course of several films. After The Final Chapter killed off Jason Voorhees and 1985’s Friday the 13th: A New Beginning replaced him with a copycat killer, Tommy was even intended to be the main villain of Part VI before the backlash to New Beginning convinced Paramount to bring back Jason.
Indeed, Turek himself recently singled out the hockey-masked murderer as one of the few essential components of any Friday the 13th reboot, along with summer camps and camp counselors. Regardless, it could be a while before anyone gets a chance to bring the horror property back to screens, but hey, maybe that Creighton Duke spinoff announced last year by the director of Jason Goes to Hell can still happen.
