The Real Reason A Supernatural And Friday The 13th Crossover Didn't Happen
It's crazy to think that it has now been over 15 years since Eric Kripke's "Supernatural" hit the airwaves for its inaugural episode. This is especially impressive considering it continued pumping out new installments nearly all that time, finally wrapping up in November of 2020 with a total of 327 under its belt. Week after week, the sibling duo of Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) would tackle a new paranormal case head-on and help out the poor folk plagued by other-worldly threats. This premise not only kept the masses entertained but greatly bolstered their love for every facet of the program.
Though recognized best for its TV procedural formula and goofy one-off stories, "Supernatural" reached the heights it did by leaning into its affinity for the horror genre. After all, it's a show about two brothers hunting monsters and demons, so there was truly no better framework to settle into. Not to mention, this allowed for extensive worldbuilding that ensured that practically no plot element was off-limits, so long as it fit the narrative. That paved the way for some pretty interesting crossovers with IPs of the same flavor, such as an animated one that features the cast of "Scooby-Doo."
However, not every attempted intersection between "Supernatural" and another beloved piece of spooky media has panned out. Take, for instance, the attempted "Friday the 13th" crossover that viewers narrowly missed out on.
Legalities got in the way of Jason Voorhees' Supernatural debut
Season 3 of "Supernatural" featured an episode titled "Dream a Little Dream of Me," in which Sam and Dean's father figure, Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver), wound up in a coma courtesy of Jeremy Frost (G. Michael Gray). To rescue him, Sam and Dean take some African Dream Root to enter his dreamscape and wake him up, but this proves much easier said than done. They encounter truly horrific sights on their quest, including a memory of the day Bobby had to kill his demonically possessed wife, Karen (Elizabeth Marleau), but the brothers are eventually successful.
On its own, this scene more than serves its purpose in the story, but the original plans for how it would play out were much more interesting. Sam and Dean's jaunt through Bobby's dream was also supposed to include an appearance from Jason Voorhees of "Friday the 13th" fame, initiating an entire sequence that would honor the trend-setting horror series. As evidenced by the episode's final cut, these elements never came to fruition, thanks to extensive legal hurdles that manifested themselves only a few days before filming started (via Screen Rant).
The closest thing fans would get to this crossover was when the actor behind Sam, Jared Padalecki, took on the part of Clay Miller in 2009's "Friday the 13th" reboot. Otherwise, this scrapped idea falls into the "what could have been" category, where it will remain forevermore.