Is there a chance that Jason Voorhees, the legendary horror movie slasher icon and face of the Friday the 13th franchise, be left out of the next movie in the series?

In a recent interview, Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller talked many things, including a sequel to The Purge, the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the next Friday the 13th.

When asked about where things stand on the next movie in the Friday franchise, Fuller didn’t seem positive that the movie would in fact be using Jason at all…which would certainly be an interesting decision to make. Sure, Jason hasn’t been the focus of every movie in the series (his mother was at the center of the original, and Part V: A New Beginning featured an imposter), but he is the face of the franchise, and doing a new movie without him sounds awfully risky.

Continue reading to see what Fuller had to say.

First Fuller reaffirmed that all complications that once existed in making a new movie were taken care of with the deal with Warner Brothers involving Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. The new movie even has a release date, despite no script or cast or crew.

One of the rumors was that the next entry in the series might use the found footage style, which Fuller confirmed is something they’re looking at as a possibility. A found footage Friday the 13th is something fans of the franchise didn’t seem too open to (myself included, even as a big fan of found footage flicks), but it is no doubt a popular horror movie option and it makes sense for them to at least explore the option.

Then the conversation got to the interesting stuff. Fuller was asked if Derek Mears, who donned the iconic hockey mask as the new Jason in the 2009 reboot, would be returning for the next movie. Fuller responded:

He was then asked if they might consider going back to fan favorite Kane Hodder if the situation called for it, to which he replied “I think if we’re going to go for a Jason Voorhees we would go with Derek. He’s our guy.”

Maybe this is nothing, or perhaps a simple misunderstanding in text, but the fact that Fuller mentions not being sure if they’ll have a Jason in the next movie is certainly unexpected and a tad confusing.

As a huge fan of Voorhees and Friday the 13th, I don’t know why they would ever even consider not having him in the next movie. The last time that was attempted—the aforementioned imposter in Part V—the movie bombed, leading to the re-animation of the corpse of Jason in Part VI: Jason Lives, and the introduction of the undead and immortal Jason we’ve seen in most movies since then.

Would you be open to a new Friday the 13th movie without Jason Voorhees if the alternate was compelling enough?

[Source: Crave Online]