Peacock’s Crystal Lake landed on October 15 with all eight episodes at once, and its most unexpected credit reaches back to Agrabah in 1992.
The Friday the 13th prequel is created, written, and executive produced by Brad Caleb Kane, NBCUniversal confirms. The series follows single mother Pam Voorhees, played by Linda Cardellini, whose grief over her young son Jason’s drowning almost a year earlier is disturbed when two strangers arrive in town asking questions about her past. Trevor Decker News covered the official trailer ahead of the premiere.
Three decades before Crystal Lake, Kane was the singing voice of Aladdin in Disney’s animated Aladdin. Scott Weinger supplied the character’s speaking voice, while Kane, credited as Brad Kane, sang Aladdin’s songs, including “One Jump Ahead” and “A Whole New World,” the Oscar-winning duet he performed with Lea Salonga, the singing voice of Jasmine. He returned to sing for Aladdin in the sequels The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
Here is Kane and Salonga in the studio, recording “A Whole New World” together:
And here is “One Jump Ahead,” Kane’s big solo number from the film:
The Disney job nearly did not happen. Kane told People that he first auditioned for composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman as a high school senior, then heard nothing for about eight months. By the time the callback came, he was a freshman at NYU touring with a grunge band, sleeping on floors between gigs, and not especially interested in acting. His mother persuaded him to fly back to New York, where he sang “A Whole New World” with Salonga once, and the role was his.
Horror, it turns out, was his first love anyway. Kane grew up watching slasher movies and reading Stephen King, which helps explain a résumé that now runs from Agrabah to two of horror’s most famous towns. He co-showran the first season of HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry with Jason Fuchs, and is the sole showrunner for its second season; the series itself was developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Fuchs. Its young cast includes Matilda Lawler as Marge Truman, whom Disney+ viewers may know from The Santa Clauses.
All eight episodes of Crystal Lake are streaming now on Peacock.