Jason Voorhees: Everything We Know So Far

You know the sound. A twig snapping somewhere behind you. The lake going dead quiet. You’re at Camp Crystal Lake — not the real one, don’t worry — and the counselors just told you the legend: the boy who drowned, the mother who snapped, the thing in the hockey mask that never stays dead. You laugh. Everyone laughs. Then the lights go out.

Don’t go in the lake. Not yet. Harper’s here, and we’ve got twelve movies of catching up to do.

This is your one-stop tracker for the Jason Voorhees saga — every film, every resurrection, every whisper of a comeback. We’ll keep updating it as the news lands.

Latest Updates

• October 14, 2026: This tracker goes live.
• August 31, 2026: Victor Miller, who wrote the original Friday the 13th, dies at 86. He and Sean S. Cunningham had settled their long rights fight earlier this year — the peace that unlocked Crystal Lake and everything since.
• March 13, 2026: Franchise co-creator Sean S. Cunningham tells TMZ that a film treatment for an “old school” Jason movie is completed — and that he and Victor Miller have resolved their issues. Not greenlit yet — treatment only — but the closest thing to a new Friday the 13th film in years.
• December 2025: Director Mike P. Nelson (Sweet Revenge) confirms a new Jason Universe film is in active development and that he has pitched his take to the team.
• October 7, 2025: Horror Inc. VP Robbie Barsamian tells SFX Magazine that a new movie — “the 13th in the franchise” — plus a new video game are actively in the works. Horror Inc. also reveals a redesigned hockey mask, with 13 holes as homage, to be used across upcoming projects.
• August 13, 2025: Sweet Revenge premieres — a 13-minute Jason short directed by Mike P. Nelson, starring Schuyler White as Jason, made with Angry Orchard. The first official Jason project since the 2009 film.
• July 2025 (SDCC): Barsamian confirms a new sequel film and a new video game are in development: “a new sequel movie and new sequel game are at the top of our list.”
• May 2024: Horror Inc. launches the Jason Universe brand to relaunch the franchise across film, TV, and gaming.

Quick Specs

• Franchise: Friday the 13th
• Films: 12 (1980–2009)
• Years since last theatrical film: 17 (and counting)
• Worldwide box office: ~$468 million (unadjusted)
• Inflation-adjusted domestic: ~$908.4 million — second-highest-grossing horror franchise domestically, behind Halloween
• Highest-grossing single entry: Freddy vs. Jason (2003), ~$115–117 million worldwide
• Jason’s on-screen kill count: ~157 (the most commonly cited figure)
• Longest-running Jason: Kane Hodder — 4 films

The Men Behind the Mask

• Kane Hodder — the definitive Jason. Four films: The New Blood, Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Goes to Hell, Jason X.
• Richard Brooker — Part III. The first Jason in the hockey mask.
• Ted White — The Final Chapter. The Jason Tommy Jarvis killed.
• C.J. Graham — Jason Lives. The resurrected, undead Jason.
• Ken Kirzinger — Freddy vs. Jason. The Jason who fought Freddy.
• Derek Mears — the 2009 reboot. Leaner, faster, trap-setting Jason.
• Ari Lehman — the child Jason in the 1980 original.
• Schuyler White — the new Jason in the 2025 short Sweet Revenge.
• Created by: Sean S. Cunningham (director, 1980) and Victor Miller (writer, 1980).

One wrinkle worth knowing: Part II splits the role — Steve Daskewisz in the mask, Warrington Gillette unmasked. And Part V isn’t Jason at all — it’s a Roy Burns copycat, with Jason appearing only in dreams.

Story So Far

Full disclosure, up front: this is the saga as the films tell it — and the films contradict themselves happily. Here’s the spine.

Jason was a boy with facial deformities who drowned in Crystal Lake in 1957 while camp counselors were distracted. His mother, Pamela Voorhees, blamed the camp staff — and in the original 1980 film, she is the killer, murdering the counselors reopening Camp Crystal Lake until final girl Alice Hardy decapitates her. Jason appears only as a child in the lake in the finale.

But Jason didn’t stay dead. In Part 2 (1981), an adult Jason — living in the woods, wearing a burlap sack with one eyehole — takes up the machete himself, killing Alice and beginning his own sprees. In Part III (1982), he steals a hockey mask from prankster Shelly, and the most iconic look in horror history is born.

From there, Jason’s story becomes a cycle of death and resurrection: 12-year-old Tommy Jarvis kills him with his own machete in The Final Chapter (1984). A copycat killer imitates him in A New Beginning (1985). Tommy accidentally resurrects him with a lightning strike in Jason Lives (1986), and Jason returns as an undead revenant — stronger, nearly pain-proof, and harder than ever to put down. He’s freed by telekinesis, survives Manhattan, gets destroyed by an FBI sting and body-hops through victims via a demonic essence until he’s dragged to Hell. He goes to space in Jason X. He fights Freddy Krueger in Freddy vs. Jason. And in the 2009 reboot, a leaner, faster, trap-setting Jason hunts a new group near Crystal Lake in a separate continuity.

The one constant: you can kill Jason. You just can’t keep him dead.

All 12 Films

1. Friday the 13th (1980) — dir. Sean S. Cunningham. Camp counselors reopening Camp Crystal Lake are murdered one by one — by Jason’s mother, Pamela, not Jason.
2. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) — dir. Steve Miner. Five years later, adult Jason — alive, wearing a burlap sack — stalks a counselor-training camp near Crystal Lake.
3. Friday the 13th Part III (1982) — dir. Steve Miner. Jason steals a hockey mask from prankster Shelly and slaughters teens at Higgins Haven.
4. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) — dir. Joseph Zito. Jason revives in a morgue and terrorizes teens near the lake until 12-year-old Tommy Jarvis kills him with his own machete.
5. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) — dir. Danny Steinmann. An adult Tommy Jarvis at a halfway house faces a new killer — a Roy Burns copycat, NOT Jason.
6. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) — dir. Tom McLoughlin. Tommy accidentally resurrects Jason with a lightning strike; the undead Jason rampages until Tommy chains him to the lake floor.
7. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) — dir. John Carl Buechler. Tina Shepard, a teen with telekinetic powers, accidentally frees Jason from the lake.
8. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) — dir. Rob Hedden. Jason boards a cruise ship of teens bound for New York City and slaughters his way to Manhattan.
9. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) — dir. Adam Marcus. An FBI sting destroys Jason’s body, but his demonic essence body-hops until niece Jessica Kimble drags him to Hell — and Freddy’s glove pulls the mask down.
10. Jason X (2002) — dir. James Isaac. Cryo-frozen Jason is thawed in the year 2455 aboard the spaceship Grendel and carves through its crew.
11. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) — dir. Ronny Yu. Freddy Krueger resurrects Jason to restore fear on Elm Street — then the two slashers battle for the body count.
12. Friday the 13th (2009) — dir. Marcus Nispel. Reboot continuity: Jason hunts a group near Crystal Lake while Clay searches for his missing sister Whitney.

The Mask

In-story, Jason steals the hockey mask from prankster Shelly in Part III after wearing a burlap sack in Part II. Behind the scenes, it was a Detroit Red Wings goalie mask brought to the set — though exactly who deserves credit for the idea is disputed. What isn’t disputed: the mask became the most recognizable face in horror, and Horror Inc.’s 2025 redesign — with 13 holes as homage — shows it’s still evolving.

Why There’s Been No New Film Since 2009

The short version: a long-running rights fight. Original writer Victor Miller was awarded domestic rights to the original screenplay’s characters in 2021, while Sean S. Cunningham and Horror Inc. hold other pieces, with Paramount and Warner Bros. holding distribution rights. Neither side could make a new hockey-masked adult-Jason film alone — cooperation was required. Cunningham’s March 2026 statement that he and Miller have resolved their issues is the most hopeful sign in years that the logjam is breaking.

Harper’s Extras

• That whisper. The franchise’s signature “ki ki ki, ma ma ma” comes from “kill kill kill, mom mom mom.” Once you hear it, you never unhear it.
• The TV show with no Jason. Friday the 13th: The Series (1987–1990) ran 72 episodes about cursed antiques. Jason never appears. The title was a draw — the show wasn’t about him at all.
• The game. Friday the 13th: The Game (2017) sold 1.8 million copies before content updates stopped over the legal disputes.
• Your dare: all 12 films, in order, one weekend. No skipping Part V — yes, even the copycat one. Report back.
• Related coverage: For the Peacock prequel series about Jason’s mother, see our separate tracker — Crystal Lake: Everything We Know So Far, premiering October 15, 2026. For the other side of the Freddy vs. Jason rivalry, see Freddy Krueger. And for how the tracker format works when a new monster arrives, see Clayface: Everything We Know So Far.

The place itself: Camp Crystal Lake — the real camp behind it is a working Boy Scout camp in Hardwick, New Jersey that still opens its gates to fans. See it in our Horror Locations guide.

Sweet Revenge — the full short film (2025):

Crystal Lake — official trailer:

Friday the 13th: The Game — official announcement trailer:

Until the next nightmare, campers. Stay scared out there.

This tracker is updated as new Friday the 13th news lands. Last updated: October 14, 2026.