A new company just announced it’s come on board and is ready to take Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th franchise into the future. What exactly that means though, is not quite crystal (lake) clear.
IGN broke the news that a company called Horror Inc. is launching a new initiative called “Jason Universe” which will create “new Friday the 13th activations [spanning] a wide range of platforms from entertainment, games, immersive experiences, merchandise, and more to be announced throughout 2024.” On its official site, it touts “Welcome to a new era from the original owners of the Friday the 13th franchise.”
The announcement comes on the heels of the recent news of Bryan Fuller departing the Peacock streaming series Crystal Lake. That series, if it happens, seems to fall under this umbrella since Robert Barsamian, the president of Horror, Inc., is one of its producers. He also produced the popular 2017 video game.
“For decades, Jason shocked and thrilled audiences who kept coming back for more,” Barsamian said in a statement to IGN. “We’re excited to work with Victor Miller and Marc Toberoff on new projects we’ll announce in the coming months.” Miller is the writer of the original Friday the 13th who won the rights back to that film in 2021. He’s not a part of Horror Inc. Toberoff is his attorney.
“We’re focused on honoring the legacy while elevating the fan experience and appealing to today’s horror audiences as we develop new ways to watch, interact and engage with the Jason Universe,” Robbie Barsamian, VP of Horror, Inc., added.
So, like, what does any of that mean? Well, Bloody Disgusting speculates, and we agree, that it sounds like Jason Universe is going to be making all manner of Jason stuff that isn’t movies. Whether that’s TV shows, video games, VR, horror activations, or viral videos, who knows. What we do know is that if you want to move merchandise, video games, horror activations, and more, the best marketing for a horror icon like Jason is an iconic horror movie. So since it seems as if Horror Inc. is not in the movie business, we are not quite as excited as we could be about all this. Excited for sure, but just a few degrees less.
“With the unique ability to remain at the forefront of pop culture for 44 years, Jason continues to top charts as one of the scariest villains of all time with strong global awareness across multiple generations thanks to billions of TikTok views plus millions and millions of gamers and movie fans,” Sheri Conn, Global GM of Horror, Inc., said. “We can’t wait to introduce new Jason Universe activations to these amazing fans.”
Along with the news was the launch of a Jason Universe website with a sign-up for updates as well as a bunch of social media channels. We guess that’s where these announcements will be coming in the next few months.
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