The name "Elias" may cause Friday the 13th fans to ponder what could have been, as it refers to Jason Voorhees' father, a character originally intended to appear in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Although referenced in several Friday the 13th novels and comic books, Elias has never appeared in a Friday the 13th film, but that could change in the new movie.
According to Devin Faraci of Birth.Movies.Death, Jason's father, Elias, is one of the characters in Aaron Guzikowski's (Prisoners) screenplay for the new Friday the 13th movie.
The extent of Elias' involvement in the story is currently unknown, but this news comes on the heels of Brad Fuller's recent conversation with The Reel Word's Guillermo Troncoso, in which the Platinum Dunes producer revealed that the new Friday the 13th film will tell an origin-ish story that fans of the franchise haven't experienced before:
“...You kind of have to understand Jason Voorhees. So we go back and we kind of started over and work our way forward.”
[It’s] origin-ish, but it’s an origin that no one has seen before. Obviously Pamela’s there, but it’s a little bit different from what you’ve seen before.”
Jason Lives writer/director Tom McLoughlin's original ending for the franchise's sixth film featured Elias visiting his son's grave and sensing that Jason's body had been chained below the surface of Crystal Lake, setting up Elias as a potential future villain. The backlash from the Jason-less Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, however, forced the filmmaker to abandon the intriguing ending and instead focus on Jason's body in the final frame (still an effectively nightmare-inducing scene), although the scene was later brought to life in a nifty storyboards special feature on the Deluxe Edition DVD.
With Elias now possibly set to appear onscreen, are you excited or disappointed? Would you prefer to keep the character shrouded in mystery or brought out into the light?
Time will tell if Elias can make the leap from the printed page to the big screen, as the new Friday the 13th film is set for a January 13th, 2017 release from Paramount Pictures. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more updates on all things Camp Crystal Lake.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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