Freddy vs Jason could have taken a very different turn as one of the first scripts included a villain named Thanos, though not the one viewers have met in Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The horror genre peaked in the 1980s and made way for various franchises that became widely popular and continue to have a lot of fans all over the world. Some of these are Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street and Victor Miller’s Friday the 13th, which introduced two villains that have become part of pop culture: Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.
These two very different slashers lived in their own universes and timelines for decades, but in 2003, they crossed paths in the movie appropriately titled Freddy vs Jason. Directed by Ronny Yu, Freddy vs Jason retroactively established these characters as part of a shared universe and had them go against each other, this as a result of Krueger manipulating Voorhees into coming back to life and going on a new killing spree so he could return as well. Freddy vs Jason was a box office success but didn’t do as well with critics, and had the writers gone with an earlier idea, it wouldn’t have been popular with critics either.
A Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees crossover had been in development since the late 1980s, but the studio couldn’t agree on a story. The project encountered a number of obstacles, mostly related to the rights to Friday the 13th and Jason Voorhees, and Wes Craven started working on New Nightmare while other Friday the 13th movies were developed, so Freddy vs Jason was put on hold for a while. After that, different writers were involved in an effort to find the best story that could bring these two slashers together and be profitable (of course), and among those was Peter Briggs (Hellboy). Briggs submitted a pitch in the early 1990s for Freddy vs Jason, and it saw the characters going against none other than Satan himself, who was named Thanos.
As described by Bloody Disgusting, Briggs’ idea was for Freddy and Jason to have a shared past, with the Voorhees living on Elm Street and Jason’s parents being part of the lynch mob that killed Krueger, who later returned to kill Jason – and then brought him back. The story began in the 17th century and pitted the two slashers against each other in Hell, with Thanos revealed to be the real master of Krueger and Voorhees. This version ended with Freddy and Jason teaming up to kill Satan and then being banished from existence thanks to an FBI agent who goes back in time, forges a judge’s signature, and stops Freddy from being released from prison, so Jason was never killed. This convoluted idea was eventually left aside and the final version was less messy and didn’t involve the devil nor time-travel, and the backstories of Freddy and Jason weren’t connected either.
Briggs’ idea wouldn’t have connected with the audience, as it added too many elements to the mythologies of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees and the addition of Thanos and a time-traveling FBI agent would have made it too hard to believe and follow. Ultimately, the final version of the script for Freddy vs Jason was also criticized as critics found it didn’t offer anything new to either universe, but it was easier to follow than a trip to hell and a retcon through time travel.