Everything to Know About Crystal Lake, Peacock's Friday the 13th Prequel Series

Horror fans, rejoice: The A24 collab officially has a Peacock premiere date!

By Chris Phelan May 11, 2026, 1:45 PM ET

Photo: Clayton Hawkins/Peacock

Key Takeaways

Crystal Lake, the anticipated Friday the 13th prequel series, premieres on Peacock October 15.
The show stars Linda Cardellini as Pamela Vorhees.
It: Welcome to Derry prequel showrunRead More

Crystal Lake, the anticipated Friday the 13th prequel series, premieres on Peacock October 15.
The show stars Linda Cardellini as Pamela Vorhees.
It: Welcome to Derry prequel showrunner Brad Caleb Kane is series creator, writer, showrunner, and EP.

It's the news horror fans have been clamoring for: Crystal Lake, the long-awaited Friday the 13th prequel series, finally has a premiere date.

Star Linda Cardellini appeared at the NBC Upfronts at Radio City Music Hall on May 11 and previewed the first look at Peacock and A24's show. It takes viewers right back to the titular Crystal Lake, where a young boy named Jason Vorhees tragically drowned at a summer camp. Cardellini plays Jason's mother Pamela Vorhees, who was portrayed by Betsy Palmer in the original 1980 film.

Below, learn when Crystal Lake will premiere on Peacock, who's in the cast alongside Cardellini, and what we can tell you about the plot — for now.

What is Crystal Lake about?

The Peacock series winds the clock back to the childhood of the iconic Jason Voorhees character through the story of his mother, Pamela Vorhees.

Jason is famously the franchise's eventual killer, and his passion for what he does has taken him everywhere from Manhattan to outer space on the big screen. Since the original's theatrical debut nearly 46 years(!!) ago, 12 Friday the 13th films have been made in total. There has never been, however, a prequel — so Crystal Lake has plenty of fresh story to tell.

The spooky drama series is the brainchild of creator/writer/showrunner/executive producer Brad Caleb Kane, with Marc Toberoff, Victor Miller, Robert M. Barsamian, Robert P. Barsamian, Stuart Manashil, Tyson Bidner, and Michael Lennox all set to executive produce.

Kane is no stranger to prequels: He was the co-showrunner for It: Welcome to Derry.

When does Crystal Lake come out?

Crystal Lake premieres Thursday, October 15, 2026, exclusively on Peacock — right in the heart of Halloween season (not to namecheck another classic horror franchise!).

Here's the official Crystal Lake cast list

Cardellini will portray Pamela Voorhees, mother to a young Jason Voorhees (played by Callum Vinson).

William Catlett, Devin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins, and Gwendolyn Sundstrom are also set to star.

Here's what audiences should expect from Crystal Lake

In a December 2025 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kane gave audiences a few clues of what to expect from the new series.

"In many ways, it's a psychological thriller. It's a paranoid '70s thriller," he explained. "It has all of the DNA of a slasher without quite being a slasher. There are rivers of blood in the show. There are very, I think, ingenious kill sequences and deaths and murders, but it's all done in service of character and theme and place and time."

Kane revealed that he paid tribute to the original movie by not shying away from the franchise's history.

"I tried to think about Crystal Lake and a Friday the 13th prequel as, 'What era did the first movie come out of?'" he continued. "It came out of the paranoid '70s thriller era. It came out of the mistrust-of-institutions era. It came out of the women's lib era, the National Organization for Women era, this consciousness-raising awakening era in America. I wanted to go and play with all of those themes."

Above all else, Kane is excited for audiences to experience Cardellini in the iconic role of Pamela Voorhees, saying the three-time Emmy nominee is "inconceivably brilliant in it."

"She's gonna shock and surprise a lot of people," Kane revealed. Stream Crystal Lake in October 2026, and check back for more updates and images as they come.