Why Legendary Jason Actor Kane Hodder Didn't Return For Freddy Vs Jason

Kane Hodder is Jason Voorhees. 

The famed stuntman played the hockey-masked slasher from "Friday VII" — "Jason X," as well as the characterization in the "Friday the 13th" video game. Hodder elevated Jason to a veritable horror icon, which is why it was a devastating shock when Hodder wasn't cast in "Freddy vs Jason." Hodder spoke at length about the situation during the 2017 documentary "To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story," chronicling his career up until that point. Hodder had just finished "Jason X" when he was approached by someone at New Line Cinema for a lunch meeting, where he was given the script for "Freddy vs Jason" and informed that the movie was finally happening.

"I assumed at that time that meant I was doing the movie," he said. "You're giving me the script and saying 'We're finally doing this movie,' ... pretty sure thing in my mind. Then in the weeks that followed, I started getting a weird vibe from New Line." Robert Englund, the actor behind Freddy Krueger in the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" series, was also under the impression that he was going head-to-head with Hodder. "I was told by the powers that be for most of that prep time it was always going to be Kane," he explained.

But then stunt performer Ken Kirzinger was cast instead. Hodder was told that New Line had cast someone who played Jason before, but Hodder had been playing the character for 15 years, so that didn't seem accurate. However, Kirzinger technically did play Jason, as he took a bump from a cop car in "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan," because the production team didn't want to risk Hodder breaking his leg and it delaying the rest of the production. Kirzinger was in, and Hodder was disrespectfully out.

At the time of the documentary, Hodder was not given a definitive reason for his replacement. "I, to say the least, was devastated," he said. "It's only a role, but it's something that I had put my heart and soul into for 15 years, four films in a row, and it seemed like none of that mattered." Hodder called it one of the lowest points of his career, rivaling his near-death experience in 1977, when a fire stunt went horribly wrong, leaving him with second and third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body. "It took me a long time to get over that." While "Freddy vs Jason" is a roar of a good time, I can't help but imagine how much more exciting it would have been to have a proper Englund vs Hodder on-screen rivalry.

In the years since, the prevailing narrative is that Kirzinger was cast because he was taller than Hodder, but who knows if that was really the reason or just the one they've come up with as an easily digestible sound bite after the documentary shined light on the injustice. Ironically, Kane Hodder is in "Freddy vs Jason," but as a cameo during a scene in the asylum when the characters are watching "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3," as Hodder was the stunt performer for Leatherface as well as the film's stunt coordinator. So while it's not quite Jason Voorhees, at least Hodder can say he was in the film. He also reprised the Leatherface role for the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" video game.

If there's any silver lining to be found, Hodder would revitalize his career in 2006 when he added another slasher character to his repertoire, Victor Crowley in Adam Green's "Hatchet" series, which would include four films in total.