Friday the 13th Officially Sets Return With Legendary Director

Published Nov 13, 2026, 10:59 AM EST

Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area.

“For generations of fans, Jason’s identity is inseparable from the creative choices Steve Miner brought to the screen,” Horror, Inc. executive vice president Robbie Barsamian said in a press release. “Reuniting with Steve under a fully independent model allows us the creative control to honor what makes Jason the greatest slasher of all time and deliver the definitive theatrical event that today’s audiences expect.”

Miner introduced several of Jason’s most well-known trademarks, giving him a machete in the second film and a hockey mask in the third. (Yes, it took that long for Jason to don the mask.) “When I put the hockey mask on Jason for Friday the 13th Part III, I knew it would create a truly scary image that would work for that movie,” Miner said in the release. “I had no idea that it would live on as one of the most iconic symbols in horror films. I’m thrilled to come back and continue the legacy.”

“Bringing an icon like Jason back to the screen requires dedication to craft and a deep respect for the fandom,” said Jeanette Volturno, co-founder of production partner CatchLight Studios. “We’re excited to collaborate with Steve and Robbie to create a practicallyshot film that is relentless, cinematic, and terrifying.”

A lot of bodies

The original Friday the 13th film debuted on May 9, 1980, and went on to gross close to $60 million on a roughly $500,000 budget. Directed by Sean S. Cunningham and written by Victor Miller, the film follows a group of teens who are murdered by an unknown killer. Like many horror flicks of its day, the movie spawned a slew of increasingly ridiculous sequels, culminating in the 10th film, where Jason goes to space after being cryogenically frozen for 400 years. The series itself was put on ice after a 2009 reboot, which did well at the box office despite bad reviews.

Even with his long absence from the big screen, Jason Voorhees has remained a pop culture icon thanks to Friday the 13th: The Game and cameos in Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Dead by Daylight.Last month, Peacock released the prequel TV series Crystal Lake, which follows Jason’s mom, Pamela Voorhees, and a young Jason. The show received generally positive reviews, with praise for Linda Cardellini’s performance as Pamela. While Horror, Inc. hasn’t announced any official plot details about the upcoming Friday the 13th film, it seems fair to assume the movie will build on Jason’s revamped origin story from the series.