Recently surfaced concept images provide a look at Jason Voorhees’ unused design from a canceled 2016 Friday the 13th movie and TV show. For slasher fans, it’s been a long, sad decade, thanks to the absence of iconic killer Jason Voorhees from screens. Jason last claimed victims in Platinum Dunes’ highly underrated 2009 Friday the 13th remake, which was actually a partial re-telling of the first few films in the franchise, not just the original. Even though that film was a box office hit, Friday the 13th has been in hibernation ever since, despite several scripts for a follow-up being written.
In the last several years, a new obstacle has surfaced, in the form of a lawsuit between original Friday the 13th director and producer Sean S. Cunningham and original writer Victor Miller. Miller is attempting to use a feature of U.S. copyright law to gain control over the Friday the 13th property, while Cunningham is arguing that Miller wrote the script as a work for hire, and thus shouldn’t be allowed ownership. That battle finally looks to be settled in 2020.
As of 2013, the rights to Friday the 13th left Warner Bros. and returned to Paramount, as part of a deal involving the Christopher Nolan movie Interstellar. A movie reboot was quickly put in development, and planned for a 2016 release. In 2014, a Friday the 13th TV show was developed, eventually landing at The CW, but the network ended up passing on the project. Thanks to images obtained by Fridaythe13thFranchise.com, fans can now get a glimpse of what Jason could’ve looked like in those canceled projects.
Friday the 13th: What Jason Looked Like In Canceled 2016 Movie
The above images are only a selection of what the full post on Fridaythe13thFranchise.com has to offer, and interested fans are encouraged to check out the entire lot. It’s not entirely clear which of the images are of concepts intended for the canceled 2016 movie and which were intended for use in the canceled CW TV series. Still, diehard Jason fans love to see stuff like this that provides a look at what might’ve been in some alternate timeline, just as they love to see the various deleted scenes and unused scripts that have surfaced over the years.
For those wondering why some of the Jason designs look so different, it’s important to remember that the CW show was meant to span different time periods, so it can be assumed that Jason’s various appearances were reflective of what amount of time had passed since he began killing. Hopefully the seemingly impending resolution of the Friday the 13th rights lawsuit will finally lead to new Jason material actually happening soon. The Friday the 13th video game proved to be a fun diversion, but that two ended up being affected by the lawsuit, leading to a cessation of new material being added. It’s about time Jason leaves the courtroom and returns to Crystal Lake.
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Source: Fridaythe13thFranchise.com
