Peacock's Friday The 13th Prequel Series Has A New Showrunner, And It's... The Voice Of Aladdin?

For many years, A24 has been attempting to adapt the long-running slasher film series "Friday the 13th" into a prequel TV series called "Crystal Lake." For a few promising moments, Bryan Fuller was set to be the showrunner, but like so many Fuller projects, he eventually parted ways with the project over creative differences. This was in addition to the continued legal woes surrounding the "Friday the 13th" movies, leaving director/producer Sean Cunningham butting heads with original "Friday the 13th" screenwriter Victor Miller as to who owns the rights to the 1980 hit.

Charlize Theron was once eyed to star in "Crystal Lake" as Jason Voorhees' mom, Pamela Voorhees, but that may no longer be the case now that the series has undergone some reworking in the wake of Fuller's departure. That reworking may finally be in full swing once again, as, according to a new report from Variety, Brad Caleb Kane has been hired as the series' new showrunner.

As a writer, Kane has a long résumé, having written episodes of the "Crash" TV series, the sci-fi series "Fringe," and the big-budget pirate show "Black Sails." Kane also wrote episodes of "Lodge 49" and served as producer on the previous shows. More recently, he wrote some episodes for the marital arts show "Warrior" and the Max series "Tokyo Vice."

Kane also has a long career as an actor and a singer, and has been performing on stage and screen since he was a child. His first acting credit was in the 1982 Tony Bill film "Six Weeks," where he appeared briefly as one of the kids in The Nutcracker Suite.

Perhaps most surprisingly, however, Kane has made a handy career with Disney, serving as the singing voice of Aladdin in "Aladdin" and many other ancillary Disney projects.

The speaking voice of Aladdin was provided by Scott Weinger, but Kane performed all of Aladdin's songs. Kane also did the singing for the direct-to-VHS '90s "Aladdin" sequels, "The Return of Jafar" and "Aladdin and the Prince of Thieves," and additionally sang for a few Aladdin-adjacent video games including "Aladdin: Activity Center" in 1994 and "Disney's Aladdin in Nasira's Revenge" in 2001. It was, it seems, a lucrative recurring gig for the actor, easily buoying him as he turned away from acting and toward professional writing.

Kane has now released several of his own albums going all the way back to 1993, when he released "Classic" with his band Misconceptions. He also released albums called "This Day in History" and "Negative Pickup," which came out in 2008 and 2018 respectively. The most recent of those can be listened to on Soundcloud and have a moody, bombastic indie rock sound.

"Friday the 13th" will not be Kane's first exposure to horror. He recently wrapped production "IT: Welcome to Derry," the HBO series based on the 1986 novel by Stephen King and the 2017 and 2019 films directed by Andy Muschietti. Kane also recalled, talking to Variety, that he was traumatized by the sight of a man's eyeball being squeezed from his skull in "Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D," a film he first saw when he was eight years old. He is thrilled to be working back in the horror world and specifically exploring the Jason Voorhees universe.

As far as anyone knows, there will be no singing in the "Crystal Lake" TV series — although, if you hear a large, clear, "Aladdin"-like baritone at any point, one can be assured that it's Kane providing the vocals.