Who Plays Jason on Crystal Lake? Callum Vinson Starred in Another Peacock Series
At age 12, the actor is already an acclaimed series star.
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Warning: Major spoilers for Peacock and A24's Crystal Lake series below!
One of the most memorable characters introduced in Peacock and A24’s Crystal Lake series is young Jason Voorhees. Not the serial killer everyone remembers from the Friday the 13th movies, but a heartbreakingly vulnerable version brought to life by 12-year-old actor Callum Vinson.
In Crystal Lake, series showrunner Brad Caleb Kane subverts any preconceptions about Jason Voorhees. From childbirth, he's suffered from hydrocephalus, a condition where cerebrospinal fluids build in the brain. It causes Jason to weather terrible headaches and seizures in his distended cranium; not to mention other children mercilessly bullying and berating him for his physical appearance.
Pam Voorhees (Linda Cardellini) only sees her beautiful son, while audiences get to see the future horror icon from a different perspective. Learn more about actor Callum Vinson below, and stream all eight episodes of Crystal Lake now.
RELATED: Everything to Know About Crystal Lake
Who plays young Jason Voorhees in Crystal Lake?
Callum Vinson.
Episode 1, "Camp Crystal,” introduces Jason as a child. Though Vinson's character drowns by the end of the prologue, he plays Jason in the majority of the season’s flashbacks and Pam’s visions.
In the 1972 timeline, actor Zachary Branch takes over as grown Jason.
RELATED: The Full Cast of Crystal Lake
Callum Vinson’s Peacock series roles include Long Bright River and Poker Face
The horror genre has already defined much of Callum Vinson’s early career. In 2023, Vinson landed his first series role playing Henry Collins, the younger son of President James Collins (Devon Sawa), in Season 3 of Don Mancini’s Chucky series.
In 2025, Vinson was cast as a series regular playing Mickey Fitzpatrick's (Amanda Seyfried) son Thomas in the Peacock Original drama, Long Bright River. The same year, he was cast as angelic, magic-lover Elijah Turner in the Season 3 Poker Face episode, "Sloppy Joseph.”
Earlier this year, Vinson played an assassin's son in Season 3 of The Night Agent. His next project is the series adaptation of the blockbuster video game God of War, playing Atreus, son of the Spartan warrior Kratos (Dave Bautista).
Callum Vinson spent four hours in the makeup chair to become Jason Voorhees
Although Callum Vinson is too young to watch the Friday the 13th movies or Crystal Lake, he told Entertainment Weekly that he knew of Jason when he auditioned. But once he was cast, Vinson separated the slasher icon from his take on the child he was playing.
“He’s just a normal boy and he just wants to fit in with everybody, but since he had this deformation in his head, he got bullied a lot,” Vinson said. "When I read these scripts, I was honestly really sad. I put myself in the body of Jason to become him. And it was hard, but I really enjoyed playing this character. He’s one of my favorites.”
It also the first time Vinson created a character wearing heavy prosthetics. "It’s a lot, but it makes you feel so cool,” he assessed. “It’s like you’re putting on Iron Man’s mask, you’re putting on Spider-Man’s mask.”
