'Friday the 13th' Franchise Almost Featured Cheech and Chong Appearance

Jason Voorhees took down countless teens and even squared off against Freddy Krueger, but the Friday the 13th villain never got to square off against two icons of his era: Cheech and Chong. Writer-director of Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI Tom McLoughlin shared with the Post Mortem podcast that he pitched the showdown premise featuring the stoner duo, but it never moved past the idea stage.

"[Franchise producer Frank Mancuso Jr.] wanted me to do another film after we did Jason," McLoughlin confirmed. "And I said, 'What are you thinking? I don't know what it could be now.' And he said, 'Well, what do you think about Freddy (Krueger) and Jason?' And I go, 'But Freddy's at New Line and the guys at Paramount have [Jason].' And it's like, 'Well, we're going to try and see if we can work something out.' So, I started thinking about that, going, It doesn't make sense. I mean he lives in one realm and — you know, I take this stuff very seriously, what realm a monster's supposed to stay in."

When initial talks about the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street crossover fizzled out, McLoughlin had a completely different concept to move forward.

"And he came back, he goes, 'Eh, forget it, it's not going to work anyway,'" the filmmaker recalled. "And I said, 'You know what? You guys own Cheech and Chong. What if we do Cheech and Chong-meets-Jason? They're like camp counselors or something. It's like, 'Hey, man, I saw Jason out there.' 'No, man, that's a myth.' But he said, 'You know what? No.'"

The franchise had featured plenty of comedic relief throughout the years, but this crossover would've marked the first time a Friday the 13th film went full-blown comedy. Given the absurdity of the idea of Jason being in space, Jason X took itself less seriously in 2001, but was still a relatively straightforward horror movie.

In 2003, the legendary meeting between two of the biggest villains in horror took place in Freddy vs. Jason, which seemingly ended both franchises, as the next installments in each saga were reboots that start from square one.

There are no current plans for either a new installment in the Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street franchises.

[H/T Entertainment Weekly]