Dead by Daylight has many famous horror icons in its ranks, like Freddy Krueger, Ghostface, Alan Wake, Albert Wesker, and even actor Nicolas Cage. However, there is one notable omission: Friday the 13th‘s Jason Voorhees. The hockey mask-wearing, machete-toting killer has sat on the sidelines for a decade, but that’s about to change, given the latest teaser trailer for the game.
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Being a teaser — which came after an unannounced 13-hour livestream of a shed in the woods — it contains no glimpses of actual gameplay. Instead, it is a live-action tone piece meant to simply convey that Jason is coming to the game. Players won’t have to wait too much longer to try him, either, since the trailer states he will be joining Dead by Daylight on June 16th, just two days after the game’s 10th anniversary. Behaviour Interactive is keeping its card close to its chest for now and will likely reveal more about Jason’s move set and abilities sometime soon.
Fans have long since bemoaned the absence of Jason, given how he is an obvious match for the popular online game and how he was the clear inspiration for its masked killer referred to as The Trapper, who is often in promotional materials. In the weeks leading up to the 10th anniversary, many were narrowing down the new Killer to be either be Friday the 13th’s Jason or Pennywise from IT. Given the long list of characters from horror media that have slithered their way into Dead by Daylight, it seems almost inevitable that the odious clown will also make his way into the game some day down the line.
Dead by Daylight‘s Jason DLC Has Been a Long Time Coming
Even though Jason has appeared in games like Mortal Kombat X, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and MultiVersus, the legal battles surrounding his character and the franchise have limited his ability to kill freely across media lines. The complicated web of ownership rights between production company New Line Cinema, original screenwriter Victor Miller, and original director Sean S. Cunningham have made anything surrounding Friday the 13th a bit complicated. While Miller won the domestic rights to the original screenplay in 2021 after a multiyear, back-and-forth legal battle, the rights of the entire franchise are still carved up in different and often confusing ways.
This rights dispute kneecapped the 2017 asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, Friday the 13th: The Game. Publisher Gun Media put a statement out in June 2018 about the debacle saying new DLC was “unfeasible now [and] in the future” because of the lawsuit. The game was pulled from digital storefronts on December 31st, 2023, while the servers were axed exactly one year after. While there have been many asymmetrical online games like Predator: Hunting Grounds, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, many have wanted to see Jason return to the genre, especially after the unfortunate end to the 2017 game.
Director Mathieu Cote has spoken about this headache when prompted about Jason. He said in June 2025 that the possibility of Jason coming to Dead by Daylight was “greater than 0%,” but bemoaned the rights battle surrounding him and questioned if it was worth fighting over. Cote also previously stated Jason had an “open invitation” to join Dead by Daylight‘s ranks.
Following the lawsuit, Jason Universe was created to “usher in a new era of expansion in the Friday the 13th saga.” Tidying up the legal issues has opened the door for new Friday the 13th video games, movies, and TV shows, as well as the ability for various bits of the franchise to be able to show up in games such as Dead by Daylight.
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