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Spoiler Warning: The Man Under the Burlap Sack Thought He Had Been Hired to Play Someone Named Joey
Spoilers ahead for the Season 1 finale of Peacock’s Crystal Lake. Jonathan Tison, the 26-year-old actor who surfaces as a fully grown Jason Voorhees in the closing episode, “The Final Chapter,” had no clue he had landed the franchise’s signature killer until he was already at work on the show, as first reported by Deadline. The prequel series filmed under the decoy title Mama’s Boy, and Tison went in believing his character was a guy called Joey.
The secret came out during a prosthetics fitting, when the crew made it clear exactly who he was playing. Tison had never watched the Friday the 13th films, so he raced through the series up to Part VI as soon as he found out. His finale appearance brings back the sack-hooded look introduced in 1981’s Friday the 13th Part 2, a version of Jason fans have not seen on screen in decades, and he says the reaction flooding his comments and DMs has been overwhelmingly positive.
Becoming Jason was not exactly comfortable. The makeup from prosthetics designer David Presto reached into his mouth and covered one eye, leaving him with limited sight and hearing on one side. Tison joked to Deadline that if Jason ever really had to chase someone down in that state, “he’d fail.” For the character’s movement, he borrowed heavily from the hulking, head-tilting Jason of Part 2 rather than the later, near-unstoppable versions, reasoning that this Jason has not reached full strength yet.
Since Jason never speaks, Tison credited Linda Cardellini, who plays Pamela Voorhees, and Hamish Linklater, who plays Jason’s father Elias Wittering, for giving him plenty to react to, and said Callum Vinson’s performance as young Jason in the premiere built the sympathy his version inherits. A second season has not been announced, but Tison said the cast is hoping for one and that showrunner Brad Caleb Kane is eager to explore more of the town. All episodes of Crystal Lake are now streaming on Peacock.
Series: Crystal Lake
Franchise: Friday the 13th
Showrunner: Brad Caleb Kane
Cast: Linda Cardellini, Hamish Linklater, Jonathan Tison, Callum Vinson
Prosthetics: David Presto
Streamer: Peacock
Status: All episodes now streaming
Source: Reporting and confirmation via Deadline.