Warner Bros. Discovery has acquired A24's Crystal Lake — a prequel series to the Friday the 13th horror franchise — for HBO Max across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, excluding the UK and Ireland (The Hollywood Reporter).

The deal gives HBO Max the streaming home for the series across the EMEA region. Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service, holds the US rights and is set to premiere Crystal Lake in October 2025. HBO Max will roll the series out in its territories later in 2025, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The show has travelled a winding road to get here. Peacock originally ordered Crystal Lake straight to series in 2022, with Bryan Fuller — known for Hannibal and American Gods — attached as writer and showrunner. Fuller departed the project in May 2024 over creative differences with A24, the production company behind the series. Brad Caleb Kane, whose credits include Tokyo Vice, was announced as the new showrunner in August 2024 and is credited as creator, writer and showrunner on the project (Deadline).

Linda Cardellini stars as Pamela Voorhees, the mother whose grief over her son Jason became the engine of the original 1980 film. William Catlett plays Levon Brooks, the local police chief. Callum Vinson takes on the role of a young Jason Voorhees. The cast grounds a series that functions as a prequel — meaning it is set before the events of the original film — exploring the Voorhees family story before Camp Crystal Lake became a slaughterhouse.

The executive producer roster runs long: Brad Caleb Kane, A24, Marc Toberoff, Victor Miller, Robert M. Barsamian, Robert P. Barsamian, Stuart Manashil, Tyson Bidner, Michael Lennox and Roy Lee. Victor Miller wrote the screenplay for the original 1980 Friday the 13th film, and his involvement ties the prequel directly to the franchise's roots.

For audiences in the EMEA region, the HBO Max deal means the series arrives on a platform already investing heavily in horror and genre programming. For Peacock, the international sale represents an early return on a project that has been in development for nearly four years and survived a showrunner change.

Variety included Crystal Lake in its list of the Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2026 (Variety), placing it alongside titles that have not yet faced the scrutiny of a premiere audience. Whether the series delivers on that anticipation is a question only viewers will answer when it arrives.