Peacock's Perfect It: Welcome To Derry Replacement Arrives In Just 4 Weeks

Published Sep 15, 2026, 2:01 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While the Stephen King spinoff It: Welcome to Derry might not return to screens in 2026, that doesn’t mean that Peacock’s exciting upcoming horror streaming series can’t temporarily replace the show. There have been a lot of attempts to replace Netflix’s Stranger Things, and, at first, 2025’s Stephen King series It: Welcome to Derry seemed like it would just be another one of these.

As the Stranger Things franchise grew more family-friendly and softened its initially harsh indictment of social and cultural norms from the 1980s, it made sense that the It movies were increasingly contrasted with the show. Both were set in the ‘80s, both focused on groups of misfits kids stuck in a complex conspiracy involving supernatural monsters, both shared small-town settings, and both used these stories to comment on difference, identity, and community. Both even starred Finn Wolfhard in a major role.

However, while Stranger Things was unafraid of addressing the economic devastation of the ‘80s and the bigotry and homophobia of small-town America, the Netflix series got more upbeat and cheerful as its story progressed. Thus, It: Welcome to Derry’s ‘60s-set story promised to be a harsher, darker alternative to the Netflix show. What viewers couldn’t have guessed was just how brutal and brilliant the show would prove, and it is this that makes 2026’s upcoming Friday the 13th prequel, Crystal Lake, so exciting.

Crystal Lake’s Friday the 13th Prequel Borrows It: Welcome to Derry’s Spinoff Formula

Since Pennywise the Dancing Clown only attacks once a generation, It: Welcome to Derry’s story needed to rewind back to the ‘60s to tell the story of the previous generation’s encounters with Derry’s Lovecraftian secret. In doing so, It: Welcome to Derry opened up narratives about the era's societally enforced racism, Native American displacement and genocide, anti-LGBT and anti-Communist hysteria, misogyny, and persecution of people with psychosocial disabilities, and the show was shockingly unflinching in its exploration of these harrowing topics.

Set a generation before the original movie in a small town with a dark secret, starring a cast of teen victims, and ending with the setup of the original movie’s events, It: Welcome to Derry was a triumphant comeback that arguably outdid King’s original novel. Scarier than many of King’s movie adaptations but more emotionally involving, too, the series could go toe to toe with the original 1990 miniseries adaptation of It or 2017’s movie adaptation.

All of this bodes remarkably well for the long-gestating Friday the 13th prequel Crystal Lake, since the upcoming show is also set a generation before the original movie, also stars a cast of teen victims, also takes place in a small town with a dark secret, and also ends with the setup of the original movie’s events. Set to premiere on October 15, Crystal Lake stars Linda Cardellini as Jason’s mother Pamela Voorhees.

At the risk of sounding redundant, Pamela is revealed to be the killer at the end of 1980’s original Friday the 13th, which many viewers forget is an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery with an unseen killer. Taking inspiration from Italy’s colorful Giallo horror movies and Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, director Sean S. Cunningham’s movie reveals that Pamela’s son Jason drowned in the lake, and she held immature camp counselors responsible, resulting in her killing spree.

While Jason briefly appears as a waterlogged revenant in the movie’s closing scene, his role is contained to a brief dream sequence. As famously noted by the gloating killer in the opening scene of Scream, Jason doesn’t become the franchise’s infamously unstoppable, immortal killer until the second movie in the series, and doesn’t don his recognizable hockey mask until the third.

Crystal Lake Flips It: Welcome to Derry’s Premise Perfectly

Thus, Crystal Lake’s premise has a perfect setup to work with. Since 1980’s Friday the 13th is more akin to an R-rated take on Agatha Christie than Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, the movie doesn’t go in depth on Pamela’s psychology and never explores the intricacies of her backstory. In contrast, Crystal Lake arrives at a time when sympathetic horror anti-heroines are at peak popularity.

It’s not yet clear how human/supernatural Jason will be in Crystal Lake, as the show’s trailer heavily implies he will survive his drowning but becomes some sort of supernatural being during the events of the series. However, what is clear is that Pamela Voorhees is the very human, sympathetic heroine of this story, where Pennywise was the very inhuman monstrous villain of It: Welcome to Derry. Thus, Crystal Lake can borrow the backbone of It: Welcome to Derry’s approach while still telling a very different story.

Like It: Welcome to Derry, Crystal Lake will be set in the ‘60s and ‘70s, allowing the show to explore how the social mores of the era drove Pamela to her eventual breakdown. Like It: Welcome to Derry, the show can highlight how small-town life isolated her at a low point, resulting in her lashing out in an attempt to avenge her son’s apparent drowning. However, unlike It: Welcome to Derry, here, the original movie’s villain becomes the lead character.

Crystal Lake Can Redeem One of Horror’s Greatest Franchises

The superb series Bates Motel attempted to pull off something similar with Psycho’s Norman Bates, and largely succeeded in this ambitious effort. However, unlike Psycho or John Carpenter’s Halloween franchise, the Friday the 13th series has a flaw that makes Peacock’s prequel show all the more exciting. Already, judging by its trailer alone, the show looks truly, genuinely great.

This is something that can’t honestly be said about any Friday the 13th property to date, despite how much well-earned love the series receives from the horror community. At a push, one could argue that the original movie or 1982’s Friday the 13th Part III are solid, fun slashers, and director Tom McLoughlin’s 1986 sequel Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is broadly seen as a surprisingly funny, self-aware outing for the series.

However, from the campiness of Jason X and Freddy Vs Jason to the absurdity of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, the original series doesn’t have any truly great movies. This is great news for Crystal Lake, as it means Peacock’s prequel show can be the best Friday the 13th outing since the 1980 original thanks to its It: Welcome to Derry-style reinvention of the franchise.

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  Linda Cardellini

  Pamela Voorhees

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  William Catlett

  Levon Brooks

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  Cameron Scoggins

  Dorf

• Danielle Kotch

  Claudette