Well, it has only taken 17 years, a rather ridiculous rights battle and enough false starts to make you wonder whether Jason was ever coming back, but we finally have some proper Friday the 13th movie news. Jason Voorhees is heading back to cinemas in 2027, and there's a familiar name taking the director's chair.
Steve Miner, who directed Friday the 13th Part II and Friday the 13th Part III, is returning to the franchise for its 13th feature film, and he is someone who was there when Jason started becoming the character we know today. Part II was the first film to make Jason the main killer, while Part III gave him his famous hockey mask. So, if you're going to bring someone back after all these years, you could certainly do worse.
And yes, it's been a long wait. The last theatrical Friday the 13th movie was the 2009 reboot, meaning we'll have gone nearly two decades without a new Jason feature by the time this one arrives.
A familiar face behind the camera
Miner isn't the only interesting part of the announcement. The film is being written by David Fliegel, a relatively new name in feature-film screenwriting, and will be financed and produced by the Barsamian family through Horror, Inc., the company behind the Friday the 13th franchise.
CatchLight Studios has joined as production partner, while Cineverse has picked up North American distribution rights, including the theatrical release.
We don't have a plot synopsis or casting announcements yet, so there's no indication of who Jason will be chasing around this time.
Jason's return has been a long time coming
It's worth remembering just how much has happened since the 2009 film. The franchise became tangled up in a lengthy legal dispute over ownership, and several attempts to get another movie moving went nowhere. There have been scripts, proposed reboots and plenty of rumours, but nothing that actually put Jason back on the big screen.
Meanwhile, the franchise has been finding other ways to keep itself alive, most recently with the Crystal Lake television series and Mike P. Nelson's short film Sweet Revenge. Neither is quite the same as getting a proper theatrical Friday the 13th movie, though.
I'm pleased they're finally moving ahead with this though, and getting the man behind Part II and Part III back to direct Jason is a pretty good way to start. Now give us a decent cast, a simple story, some memorable kills and a Jason who doesn't need an entire committee to decide how frightening he's allowed to be.