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The 2009 reboot of “Friday the 13th” left audiences on edge with its shocking cliffhanger, leaving the fate of Clay Miller, played by Jared Padalecki, and his sister Whitney, portrayed by Amanda Righetti, uncertain after an encounter with the notorious Jason Voorhees, played by Derek Mears. Recently, the film’s writers, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, have disclosed that the siblings did not meet a happy fate.
Warner Bros.
In the film, Clay embarks on a mission to find Whitney, who vanishes at the infamous Crystal Lake. Along the way, he confronts the menacing, hockey-masked Jason. Despite their efforts to defeat him by stabbing him and disposing of his body in the lake, Jason makes a chilling return, emerging from the water to seize Whitney just as the movie concludes. Shannon and Swift revealed to ComicBook.com that a planned sequel, titled “Camp Blood: The Death of Jason Voorhees,” would have definitively confirmed the demise of both Whitney and Clay in its opening sequence.
Swift explained, “In the opening scene, Crystal Lake is frozen solid. Two mischievous teens venture onto the ice to play hockey, only to have their puck stop atop what appears to be a dead girl beneath the ice—Whitney from our previous story.” Additionally, the writers confirmed that Clay would not have survived the events of the first film either.
Despite facing critical scrutiny, the “Friday the 13th” reboot proved to be a financial success. With a production budget of $17 million, the film grossed over $92 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing installment in the series, apart from the “Freddy vs. Jason” crossover. Such impressive earnings made the prospect of a sequel an attractive one for studio executives.
Shannon and Swift shared with ComicBook.com that they were actively involved in developing the sequel. “Yes, we wrote a sequel for ‘Friday the 13th,'” Swift stated. “We sold it, and it was set to be produced but, unfortunately, Jason got tangled up in rights issues.”
The Friday the 13th sequel was greenlit, then canceled
Warner Bros.
The “Friday the 13th” reboot may have received a critical battering, but the numbers turned out to be sweet music to the ears of the studio executives. The film cost $17 million to produce, but it raked in over $92 million at the global box office, making it the highest-grossing film in the franchise, excluding the “Freddy vs. Jason” crossover movie. With that kind of profit margin, a sequel was not only expected but also illogical to ignore.
As Damian Shannon and Mark Swift confirmed to ComicBook.com, they were involved in continuing the story. “Yes, we wrote a sequel for ‘Friday the 13th,’” Swift said. “And we sold it. It was going to be made but, ultimately, Jason has gotten into rights issues.”
So, what happened? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. gave up the rights to “Friday the 13th” to Paramount Pictures in order to secure international distribution rights for Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar.” Then, this turned into another legal matter entirely when the original writer of the 1980 film, Victor Miller, and the director, Sean S. Cunningham, entered into a dispute over who owns the rights to the franchise and characters. Let’s just say this was a bloodbath behind the scenes that would have made Pamela Voorhees beam with joy, but the biggest casualty was Shannon and Swift’s “Camp Blood: The Death of Jason Voorhees,” a horror movie sequel that was never made.