Freddy Vs. Jason 2 - Will It Ever Happen?

Nearly 20 years before "Godzilla vs. Kong" and a year before "Alien vs. Predator," audiences got one of the most unthinkable crossovers ever, with New Line Cinema delivering the long-desired meeting between two of horror's most legendary slasher villains. Released in 2003, "Freddy vs Jason" merged the worlds of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th," with dreamscape killer Freddy Krueger facing off with the supernatural masked murderer Jason Voorhees. 

The battle between these horror superstars begins with Freddy using Jason to regain his old power, while gathering new victims for him to slaughter. But when Jason's own lust for blood interferes, it leads to a face-off between them both. As the body count rises and the chaos escalates, the people of Springwood become pawns in a violent game played by a pair of relentless killers — one that ends in a violent showdown at Crystal Lake.

Since its release, fans have wondered if "Freddy vs. Jason" would ever get a sequel. There had long been rumors of a follow-up, which has continued to fuel debate and discussion about a second installment. But over the years, gossip has spun so fast that the cast and crew have had to respond, and several very real attempts to make a sequel have been made. But there's been nothing to show for it, and fans are still wondering — will a sequel to "Freddy vs. Jason will ever happen?

The "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th" franchises were both popular, profitable series in the '80s and '90s, though both had languished for several years by the turn of the millennium. Freddy's last film was almost a decade earlier, and the previous Jason flick had been a flop. So when "Freddy vs. Jason" landed in 2003, combining them into a crossover film, it re-energized both characters and wound up pulling in the highest box office gross for both franchises. With an estimated $116 million dollar haul on a $30 million dollar budget, it was a huge money maker, and you'd think it would have led to a second crossover.

Unfortunately, attempts to get a "Freddy vs. Jason" sequel have been stalled for years. It wasn't helped by the fact that both franchises opted to reboot their respective series', with a new "Friday the 13th" arriving in 2009, and a remake of "Nightmare on Elm Street" a year later. Neither were successful enough to warrant follow-ups, making the idea of another crossover dead.

At the same time, the movie rights to Jason and the "Friday the 13th" series — that New Line Cinema had fought so long to gain — were soon caught in a complicated legal web that has never been cleared up. Likewise, actor Robert Englund has said he's retired from the part of Freddy, making it a tall order to get a sequel made.

Attempts to make a sequel to "Freddy vs. Jason" went further than just pairing up the two villains for a second bout. Looking for a fresh spin, the studio tried adding a third character, and it seems that they settled on one in particular: Ash Williams from "Evil Dead." Played by Bruce Campbell, the chainsaw-wielding warrior would have matched up well against the machete and claws of Jason and Freddy.

The idea actually stems from an Easter egg in "Jason Goes to Hell," where a copy of the Necronomicon from "Evil Dead" is implied to be responsible for Jason's power. According to a SyFy interview with that film's director, Adam Marcus (via Bloody Disgusting), he was "setting up a mythology that Jason's mom wanted her son back so badly that ... she reads from the Necronomicon and brings about the resurrection of her son." As a result, the notion to cross all three franchises together seemed like a natural fit.

Unfortunately, getting the rights to both Freddy and Jason was hard enough, but wrangling "Evil Dead" on top of it proved nearly impossible. Bruce Campbell, meanwhile, wasn't all that excited about the concept, and eventually, he walked away. "I'm not real interested in crossovers," he said in a Reddit AMA. "One of the main reasons why 'Ash vs. Jason vs. Freddy' did not come to pass is because we couldn't control any other character other than Ash. That felt like a creatively bankrupt way to go."

As the rumors of a three-way battle with Ash in a sequel gained steam, the film's director, Ronny Yu, addressed the gossip in 2004. "["Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash" is] something that the studio came up with," he said while speaking with Creature Corner (via MovieWeb). "They asked me, and all the fans wanted me to do it as well, so I said, 'Yes, show me the script!' I would definitely do it. They're still working on the script, I haven't seen anything," Yu said before jokingly adding, "I hope they won't work on it for 10 years."

Sadly, Yu's jab at the long development time was frighteningly prescient, and nothing has yet to come of it some 20 years later. And he's not the only one who's been frustrated by the lack of movement. The original film's writers, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, are still holding out for a sequel to come to fruition. "We still want to get it made," they said in a 2020 posting on Twitter. 

As for the cast, Freddy actor and star Robert Englund expressed his regret that they didn't do a sequel while chatting with Too Fab in 2020. "I think that ['Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'Friday the 13th'] remakes were rushed. I know the remake on 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' was premature. We should have done another 'Freddy vs. Jason' film and then waited, they should have waited for five or 10 years."

Unlike most sequels stuck in development hell, we know a lot about what the sequel to "Freddy vs. Jason" would have been about. That's because in 2004, Bloody Disgusting actually published the screen treatment on their website for all to see. It was a version that incorporated Ash Williams, and it begins where "Army of Darkness" and "Freddy vs. Jason" left off. Ash is searching for the Necronomicon while following the destruction of Camp Crystal Lake, the town has been redeveloped, and Jason's house — where the book resides, per "Jason Goes to Hell" — is to be torn down.

According to the treatment, Freddy is "clinging to life" inside Jason's mind, and the film opens with Lori Campbell (Monica Keena) and Will Rollins (Jason Ritter) returning to Crystal Lake to make sure both villains are truly dead. After a frightening quick-kill sequence, we meet our heroes, a group of teens working at a new S-Mart — the store where Ash works — built in the new Crystal Lake. But when Jason learns of the Necronomicon, he plans to use it to free Freddy from his mind and resurrect his mother. He's not the only one who knows the book is in Crystal Lake though, and none other than the one-handed Ash has arrived to find it too, leading him into a showdown with both Freddy and Jason, with the help of his fellow S-Mart employees.

Ultimately, "Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash" would have turned the two villains into reluctant allies while sending in Bruce Campbell's Ash to stop them both.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest reasons that "Freddy vs. Jason" hasn't happened to this point is that actor Robert Englund — the only man to portray Freddy Krueger until 2010 and an integral part of the franchise's success — is no longer interested in playing the character. "I'm too old to do another Freddy now," he told Entertainment Weekly in 2017. "If I do a fight scene now, it's got to be real minimal because I can't snap my head for eight different takes and different angles." 

Englund doubled down on this in 2023, telling Variety, ""I'm too old and thick to play Freddy now. I just can't do fight scenes for more than one take anymore. I've got a bad neck and bad back and arthritis in my right wrist. So I have to hang it up, but I would love to cameo." However, the horror actor did suggest that Kevin Bacon might make for a good Freddy, saying the way he moves might be perfect for the part.

With all that said, however, if the screen treatment that had been leaked by Bloody Disgusting had ever been made, we know it would have starred Englund and Bruce Campbell, as well as Monica Keena and Jason Ritter, returning as survivors Lori and Will. Keena even addressed the possibility recently while talking with the podcast Happy Horror Time, revealing that both she and Ritter had options for a sequel in their contract for the first film. 

Of course, it's also likely that Ken Kirzinger would have reprised his role as Jason Voorhees too, and he may even still be up for a return if somehow a "Freddy vs. Jason" follow-up could ever be made. He made this clear during an appearance at a panel during the Spookala Horror Convention in 2022. "If they asked me to do that, I'd be very happy to come back," he told a moderator when asked about a possible sequel.

Given that "Freddy vs. Jason" brought together two iconic horror franchises, it makes sense that it amassed a bigger audience than either had achieved alone. And that diehard fanbase has been begging for a sequel ever since, but they're disappointed as every new year goes by without one, leaving it on an ever-growing list of horror sequels we never got to see. Yet, even after 20 years of frustration, those same fans are still hoping that a new day will dawn, and they'll finally get a chance to see Freddy and Jason together up on the big screen.

Over on Change.org, a petition to get a "Freddy vs. Jason" sequel collected signatures from thousands of enthusiastic supporters who were hoping to get Hollywood's attention in the same way Zack Snyder fans were able to convince Warner Bros. to get the director's cut of "Justice League." While nothing came of it, it did show just how passionate the movie's fans are. Likewise, over on Reddit, "Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash" often pops up on discussions of horror sequels fans still want to see, and it remains a hot topic of conversation of fans to this day. Even the press is still in love, with articles, podcasts, and websites continuing to publish discussions that ponder the possibilities of a part two even decades later.

As we've already discussed, one of the reasons for the long wait for a "Freddy vs. Jason" sequel is that both franchises have since seen clean-slate reboots. New actors were brought in, with Jackie Earle Haley putting on the striped sweater to play Freddy and future "Swamp Thing" actor Derek Mears donning the hockey mask as Jason Voorhees. Though the 2009 version of "Friday the 13th" did okayish at the box office, neither film got a sequel of its own, but one of the ideas thrown around by fans is to essentially do what both franchises did in 2003 — create a crossover mash-up movie to re-energize both series at the same time.

Recent wild rumors and fan desires aside, there's some logic to the notion, given Robert Englund's reluctance to get back into the burnt-flesh make-up and the audience's obvious hunger for another battle between the two juggernaut slashers. Even if it's unlikely that we'd get Ash Williams considering Bruce Campbell's comments on the concept, a battle between the rebooted killers could be a winning idea with the right script, a solid director, and perhaps some legacy actors from both franchises returning to make a splash. In fact, during a 2008 conversation with MTV, Derek Mears even said he'd love to do a "Freddy vs. Jason" sequel, although at the time, Jackie Earle Haley hadn't been publicly announced for the "Nightmare" reboot yet and Mears was saying how he'd love to throw down against Robert Englund.

In the absence of either effort, though, fans have taken it upon themselves to make something happen, producing high quality fan films that put their own spin on the famous face-off.

It's been two decades since "Freddy vs. Jason" first hit theaters, but what you might not know is that there is indeed a continuation of the story — just not on film. The crossover sequel took place in comic book form, a joint production between DC Comics imprint Wildstorm and New Jersey-based independent publisher Dynamite Entertainment. Titled "Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash," the six-issue miniseries was published in 2007 and written by James Kuhoric from a story by Jeff Katz. If that name rings a bell, it's because Katz was the writer of the planned movie, whose treatment was leaked online in 2004.

Following that original treatment more or less, the story sees Freddy resurrected by Jason through the use of the Necronomicon. At the same time, Ash Williams arrives in Crystal Lake looking for the cursed book, and an epic battle ensues, with Freddy resurrecting all of Jason's previous victims as Deadites that Ash must slay. But what makes this sequel so unique is that it even received a sequel of its own, "Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors," published in 2009, and once again written by Kuhoric, based on a story from Katz.

This time around, the U.S. government tries to control Freddy and Jason's powers, only to unleash them once again on an unsuspecting populace. Now it's up to Ash to join forces with former survivors of both madmen to bring them down and save the world.

There are many challenges to overcome to make a "Freddy vs. Jason" sequel happen. A new story and script will have to be assembled given Bruce Campbell's disinterest in a crossover, and Robert Englund will have to be convinced to return. The legal rights to the "Friday the 13th" series will have to be cleared up, which is no easy feat, while the studio will have to be convinced that such a crossover, 20 years later, can still work.

But even with all that in mind, there's definitely a way it can happen. For starters, Englund not so long ago expressed a desire to play Freddy again, when appearing at the MonsterMania horror convention in 2019. "I'm not Freddy anymore, you guys," Englund said before backtracking. "I could do one more ... probably. If you shot me up with vitamin C." As for the legal problems, studios have shown that when there's money to be made and a blockbuster to be produced, there's not much they won't do to get the rights they need to make it happen. For proof, look no further than Sony's unprecedented deal with Marvel to incorporate Spider-Man into the MCU or Lionsgate's acquisition of the Godzilla and King Kong rights to make their MonsterVerse.

We admit, it's probably a longshot with everything that's working against it, but it's what the fans clearly crave, and with crossovers and cinematic universes all the rage, it stands to make big box office bucks.