Peacock and A24’s Friday the 13th prequel series has found its lead actress.
Linda Cardellini will star in Crystal Lake, a drama set before the events that kicked off the slasher franchise. She’ll play Pamela Voorhees, the mother of the unkillable killer Jason Voorhees (and the person responsible for the murders in the original 1980 film). Plot details are being kept quiet for now.
Crystal Lake has been in the works for some time. Peacock ordered the series in 2022, with Bryan Fuller initially attached as writer and showrunner. Fuller eventually left the project, confirming his exit in May 2024 and saying that A24 “decided to go a different way with the material.”
Brad Caleb Kane (Max’s It: Welcome to Derry) joined the series in August and is credited as creator, writer and showrunner, suggesting that the material Fuller and other writers worked on won’t be used. “Nothing defined my childhood more than growing up in the golden age of the slasher flick, and nothing’s defined the genre more than Friday The 13th,” Kane said upon joining the series. “I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to contribute a chapter to this iconic franchise, particularly with such fearless partners as Peacock and A24.”
Kane is executive producing with A24, Marc Toberoff, Victor Miller, Robert M. Barsamian, Robert P. Barsamian and Stuart Manashil. Miller, the original film’s screenwriter, and Robert M. Barsamian hold rights to various aspects of the Friday the 13th franchise, determined after a years-long copyright dispute between Miller and the first film’s director and producer, Sean S. Cunningham.
Cardellini is currently filming HBO’s dark comedy DTF St. Louis opposite Jason Bateman and David Harbour. The three-time Emmy nominee’s credits also include Freaks and Geeks, ER and Netflix’s Dead to Me and No Good Deed. She is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen.
