The 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th could have gotten a sequel, and the reveal of its opening scene makes Jason Voorhees’ long absence even worse. The Friday the 13th franchise is one of the most popular and profitable ones in the horror genre, but it’s also one of the most troubled ones. Since 2018, the Friday the 13th series has been involved in a complicated battle for the rights to it and its characters, which has prevented the franchise from expanding with new movies or even TV shows, with its last movie being the 2009 reboot.
Directed by Marcus Nispel, 2009’s Friday the 13th is not a remake of the original movie by Sean S. Cunningham, and instead, it’s a reimagining of the first four films. This means that grown-up Jason Voorhees with his iconic mask was the killer in this version, and of course, it took viewers back to Crystal Lake. Friday the 13th was a critical failure but a box office success, though that wasn’t enough for the sequel to be greenlit – which is a real shame now that the opening scene for the sequel has been revealed.
Scrapped Sequel Plans For 2009’s Friday The 13th Sound Amazing
Friday the 13th begins with a killing spree by Jason that then connects to the main plot of the movie. Jason left only one survivor in the opening kill, Whitney (Amanda Righetti), as she reminded him of his mother, and weeks later, her brother, Clay (Jared Padalecki) arrived at the lake looking for her, with Jason targeting a new group of visitors who agreed to help Clay. The ending of Friday the 13th made way for a sequel, which even got a release date of August 13, 2010, months after the first movie was released, but by December 2009, it was pulled from its release date and delayed indefinitely before being canceled in 2010.
In honor of Friday the 13th, 2023, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift shared the script pages of the opening of their canceled sequel. Just like the first movie, the sequel would have started with a big, gruesome kill most likely unrelated to the rest of the movie, just to set the tone for it. The scene, set in the winter, would have had Jason killing a young woman at Crystal Lake on the zip line, with Jason meeting her on the other end, machete in hand. 2009’s Friday the 13th had a more brutal Jason, and the sequel would have pushed the first movie’s boundaries, being bloodier and expanding more on this version of Jason.
How Friday The 13th’s Cut Plans Would Have Fulfilled A Big Franchise Wish
Due to the main setting of the Friday the 13th franchise being Camp Crystal Lake, none of the movies so far have been set in the winter. Some fan films have imagined what a Friday the 13th story set in the winter would be like, so the sequel having its opening scene set in the winter would have finally fulfilled a big franchise wish, even if the rest of the movie went back to a summer setting with the reopening of the camp. The idea of taking Friday the 13th and Jason Voorhees to a winter setting can still happen in any of the planned projects for the franchise, but first, it’s to be seen if any of them will truly move forward and who will be in charge of it, given the above-mentioned problem with the rights to the franchise and Jason Voorhees.
