Effects Legend Greg Nicotero Discusses His Involvement With Jason Universe And The New Look Jason Voorhees

 There has been a lot of scrutiny over the past few months of the design of the new hockey mask being used in the Jason Universe. The universe thus far has used the new Jason Voorhees in a number of merchandising endeavors and the short film Sweet Revenge. The new design has been fully realized by special effects legend Greg Nicotero, which included taking the initial new hockey mask layout from Horror Inc. and then creating the full body design of the Jason character.

Recently, Greg visited the Born2BeRad Youtube Channel where he further elaborated on his work bringing a new Voorhees to the Jason Universe. He shares how his relationship with Striker Entertainment LLC got him involved with Jason Universe and his surprise at the negative backlash to the overall design he helped create.

A friend of mine owns a company, he did a bunch of merchandising for Creepshow and Walking Dead and I’ve known the guy for a long time and he goes, ‘Hey, these people are looking for somebody to make a mask.’ So when (Jason Universe) came to us, they came to me with a design already and they’re like, ‘This is what we want it to look like,’ and I was like, ‘Okay, it’s kind of interesting, the shape of the eyes and this and that.’ So we did a physical version of it and it took months to play with the shape, ‘Maybe we should try this and maybe we should change this, maybe we should change that, change this and change this.’ We actually sculpted a Jason bust that nobody’s seen because they wanted us to create a look, which I think is really great. In terms of the mask, I’m a little surprised that people are so polarized by it because I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the design. I think it’s kind of interesting and it still feels part of the DNA but it’s a little stylized in terms of the shape of the eyes and the shape of the face. But you know what? You’re never going to win with the fans of any genre because the minute that you change it just a little bit, people will react.

Greg also gives his thoughts on what he thinks of the new mask and shares his idea on why certain changes were made by Horror Inc.

The character that we designed, I love it, it’s really neat, because they gave me free range to design what I wanted to. I don’t think it’s a bad mask, I think it’s kind of cool, actually. It’s different, and in this day and age, I like different.

It’s very possible that they made changes on the mask so that they could copyright it, so that they could own it, because it’s not just a typical hockey mask. I wouldn’t doubt that.

Make sure to watch the whole conversation below as it is always great to listen to a living legend in the Horror genre talk about the films he has worked on.