Over the years, Robert Englund has pitched a handful of ideas for future A Nightmare on Elm Street films, and he’s also expressed many times in recent years that he’s done playing Freddy Krueger. But at the Summer Television Critics Association press tour, where he was on hand to help promote upcoming series “Eli Roth’s History of Horror” for AMC, Englund pitched a super fun idea that would actually see him return as Freddy Krueger… eventually, at least.
“If I had an Eli Roth budget I would have cast different actors to play Freddy for every potential victim,” Englund explained his creative idea. “Because Freddy is only alive in the imagination of his future victim. They would talk about it at a slumber party or in a locker room at school, or on the bus going home. All we know about this Fred Krueger is he wears a hat, wears a red and green striped sweater and has a clawed hand. That’s the specifics.”
He continued, “So it could be a red and green cardigan for one Freddy. It could be an old tattered baseball cap for another Freddy. Freddy could be tall, he could be short, he could be overweight, he could be muscular. Every one of the victims could have a different Freddy they imagined. And you could haunt them with that Freddy.”
“And then at the end, it would be the ultimate victim and we see Freddy peel [his face] open and maybe it’s yours truly revealed. And it’s the essence of Freddy.”
Essentially, Englund’s idea would turn Freddy into Stephen King’s IT, a shape shifting force that torments each victim as a different creature. It’s a killer idea (after all, we already know Freddy to be something of a shape-shifter, able to take on different forms), and it’s awesome to hear that Englund is at least somewhat open to playing Freddy again. What better way to bring Freddy back than to reimagine the character, while also giving us the classic version as well?
Sounds like we’d all win if Englund’s idea became reality!
