Crystal Lake Showrunner Teases Season 2 Plan, Including A Huge Friday The 13th Character Appearance [Exclusive]
by Bill Bria · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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This article contains spoilers for "Crystal Lake."
While fans of the "Friday the 13th" franchise might've thought they knew what to expect from the new "Crystal Lake" series, the show itself is proof that all bets are off. Well, maybe not all bets, because even though the show takes many wild swings, it demonstrates that it's well aware of the franchise's lore, too. While there's no shortage of elements to draw from the films, should the show be renewed for a second season, it feels like the narrative wouldn't need to launch into the events of the first "Friday the 13th" straightaway. There's already a lot of material set up by showrunner Brad Caleb Kane and his writers during the first season to follow up on, and the only surefire new wrinkle to add to that would be that Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini) now knows that her beloved son Jason (Callum Vinson) is alive and lives in the woods near Camp Crystal Lake.
Though "Crystal Lake" could easily get through another season without having to introduce other characters from the lore of "Friday the 13th," it doesn't mean that it won't. I had the opportunity to speak to Kane recently about the future of the series, and in addition to mentioning how excited he was to tackle more material with the already established characters, Kane also floated the idea of introducing another major character from the films to the show. That would be one Tommy Jarvis, the boy makeup effects prodigy whose encounter with Jason turned him first into a troubled, haunted victim before he finally ended up as a heroic avenger. As Kane told me, Tommy and the rest of the Jarvis clan could very well appear in Season 2 of "Crystal Lake," which would be huge.
Brad Caleb Kane understands that Tommy Jarvis is part of the fabric of Crystal Lake
Although the "Friday the 13th" films typically included newcomers to the town of Crystal Lake, several movies in the series also involved people who already lived in the area, locals whose lives crossed paths with the Voorhees clan one way or another. Of all of them, it's the Jarvis family who feel most rooted to Crystal Lake. In "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" (the fourth movie in the 12-film series, naturally), the Jarvises are introduced: matriarch Tracy (Joan Freeman), elder daughter Trish (Kimberly Beck), and son Tommy (Corey Feldman). Tommy would be played as an adult over the next two entries by John Shepherd and Thom Mathews, with the character changing from Voorhees heir apparent to Jason's Van Helsing (or Dr. Loomis, if you will).
Given his huge importance to the lore of the series, it makes sense why Brad Caleb Kane would seek to include Tommy in Season 2 of "Crystal Lake." As he explained to me, it's only logical that the family would have a bigger history with the town than we saw in the films:
"...in terms of how I'd integrate the other movies, there's some Jarvis lore out there that I think needs integrating into the show too. The Jarvises, I think, were a family that spent more time at Crystal Lake than we realized. They rented that cabin. They might've been coming there for years before Tommy had his encounter with Jason. So I think there's a lot to do there."
The "lot to do" Kane mentions must refer to the mercurial moral nature of Tommy's character. That's something which "Crystal Lake" is already adept at, as seen in the way they've handled Mrs. Voorhees so far.
Crystal Lake Season 2 would be as character-based as the first season
In addition to the possible (though, given Brad Caleb Kane's comments, pretty likely) appearance of Tommy Jarvis and his family, "Crystal Lake" Season 2 will also continue the show's look at its surprisingly robust cast of characters that season one set up. Kane explained to me how his early ideas for season two are largely character based for now:
"I think it's a combination of building a story based on where I want it to go, where I want the character to go. I would want to dig deeper into some of the characters in the town. I really love Dorf and Rita. I really love Ralph. I want to learn more about them and see how they integrate. Obviously, we know certain things at the end of the season. We know certain things are out there conclusively. We know Pam does. So yeah, I sort of know where I want to take it in season 2."
The "certain things" that Pam knows which Kane mentions is, of course, Jason's existence. While her knowledge of a still-living Jason might appear to break "Friday the 13th" lore on the surface, who's to say that Pamela's already tenuous grip on reality doesn't devolve further by the time she's chasing Alice around Crystal Lake in 1980, accusing her and others of letting her boy drown? The combination of lore from the films and set up from the series makes "Crystal Lake" particularly fertile creative ground, and I for one can't wait to see what wild paths a second season might take should it get made.
"Crystal Lake" is now streaming on Peacock.