Peacock’s Friday the 13th Series Loses Bryan Fuller as Showrunner

Peacock has chopped Bryan Fuller’s name from the credits of its upcoming Friday the 13th series: The Hannibal veteran has stepped down as showrunner.

“For reasons beyond our control, [production company] A24 has elected to go a different way with the material,” Fuller revealed on social media. “We hope the final product will be something Friday the 13th fans all over the world will enjoy.” (Our sister site Variety was the first to report the news.)

The show, previously titled Crystal Lake and ordered to series in October 2022, is billed as an “expanded prequel” to the long-running horror film franchise with hockey mask-wearing killer Jason Voorhees at its center. Fuller was set to write and executive-produce the prequel, also serving as showrunner.

Adrienne King, who starred in the first two Friday the 13th films, revealed in March 2023 that she and Fuller “had another exciting meeting filling me in on what’s in store for us at Camp Blood! Always a joy & can’t wait until I’m able [to] share some details!” She indicated at the time that the series would debut this year on Peacock, but that now looks unlikely; no casting or shooting has taken place yet. According to Variety, “the series order remains in place with hopes to line up a new showrunner as soon as possible.”

The original Friday the 13th film, with counselors being murdered at a summer camp, was released in 1980 and become a box-office hit, spawning a franchise that includes nine sequels, a Nightmare on Elm Street crossover Freddy vs. Jason and a 2009 big-screen reboot. A previous TV adaptation, Friday the 13th: The Series, ran in first-run syndication from 1987 to 1990. The CW also developed an hour-long series based on the franchise, but it never made it past the pilot stage.