Robert Englund says he’s never returning as Freddy Krueger for another “Nightmare on Elm Street” film but he has an idea who could play the role…
Robert Englund has distinguished himself as a fine character actor over the past 40 plus years in the industry but he’s obviously best known for his portrayal of dream demon Freddy Krueger from the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series.
He appeared as the iconic character from horror in eight films as well as the short-lived “Freddy’s Nightmares” TV series. While Englund delivered a terrific performance in a guest role during “Stranger Things” season 4 this past year, he rarely escapes talking about his past playing Freddy Krueger despite the fact that he hasn’t portrayed the character since 2003’s “Freddy vs. Jason.”
Lately, horror movies have been one of the only genres to consistently deliver at the box office with all sorts of ideas floating around about potential reboots of past franchises. There’s already a “Friday the 13th” series in the works and David Gordon Green just recently wrapped up a new “Halloween” trilogy so it seems almost inevitable that “Nightmare on Elm Street” will be born again — but it won’t be with Englund behind the makeup this time.
Englund, 75, has stated numerous times that he’s done playing the character and he reiterated that fact during a recent interview with Variety, although he added that he would definitely appear in another “Nightmare on Elm Street” film — just not as Freddy Krueger.
“I’m too old and thick to play Freddy now,” Englund said. “I just can’t do fight scenes for more than one take anymore, I’ve got a bad neck and bad back and arthritis in my right wrist. So I have to hang it up, but I would love to cameo.”
There was an ill-fated attempt at a “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake that was released in 2010 with Jackie Earle Haley taking over the role of Freddy Krueger. The film actually earned over $117 million at the box office — more than triple the production budget — but the remake was also a critical disaster and there was no real attempt to ever follow up with another sequel.
Englund has always been complimentary towards Haley’s portrayal as Freddy Krueger but he just felt like the remake took too dark of a turn to really embrace the same character he played for so many films in the franchise.
“Jackie’s just so good, a wonderful actor, so I don’t think it was that,” Englund said. ““I’ve always thought that Freddy is described as a child killer. So when they made Freddy a child molester [in the remake], that’s not what Freddy is, I don’t think.
“By taking it to such a dark, dark place, there’s no room for the personality of Freddy to be exploited.”
Given the popularity of horror films and the “Nightmare on Elm Street” rights being returned to original creator Wes Craven’s family, it’s likely that the franchise will be reborn sooner or later.
Obviously, Englund won’t be back to play Freddy Krueger again but a fan suggestion that perhaps Kevin Bacon would be a worthy replacement actually intrigued him.
“I know he respects the genre, and he’s such a fine physical actor,” Englund said about Bacon. “I think that in the silences and in the way Kevin moves — it would be interesting.”
Of course, Bacon has plenty of experience in horror films — one of his first major roles was in the 1980 classic “Friday the 13th.”
As for Englund, he will enjoy a new retrospective on his career with the upcoming documentary “Hollywood Dreams And Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story,” which debuts on the Screambox streaming service on June 6.
