The Nightmare on Elm Street film franchise has been dormant for quite some time. Of course, with just about every other horror franchise making a comeback, many fans are eager for more Freddy. Sadly, Robert Englund confirms his retirement from his role as Freddy Krueger.
As shared with Variety, he simply believes he’s “too old” to play the character. In fact, the last film he played in was Freddy vs Jason, which was released in 2003. After twenty years, then, Englund insists that he just can’t do it anymore. Though he’d still be open for a cameo appearance.
Here’s what Robert Englund stated about playing Freddy Krueger:
“I’m too old and thick to play Freddy now,” Englund says. “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.”
Fortunately, Englund does have some thoughts on the creative side. In fact, he has a promising suggestion for how to modernize the series going forward:
“You’d have to deal with technology and culture,” he says. “For instance, if one of the girls was an influencer, it would be interesting for Freddy to somehow haunt her subconscious and manifest himself, perhaps exploit everybody that followed her.”
He also continues to support to the notion of having Kevin Bacon take on the Freddy Krueger role:
“I know he respects the genre, and he’s such a fine physical actor,” he says. “I think that in the silences and in the way Kevin moves — it would be interesting.”
Of course, Bacon himself might not be young enough to carry an entire series of films. It might be best to cast a younger actor as Freddy Krueger – this way the role could continue on for quite a few decades as it did under Englund. The trick is just finding an actor that fans would be willing to accept.
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional Elm Street news as we have it.