Although Robert Englund has hung up his fedora and razor claws, the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise could live on with another Freddy Krueger.
Chuck Russell, co-writer/director of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), said that although Englund “is the only Freddy” to him, he has confidence that Jim Carrey could pull off playing the killer after directing him in The Mask (1994).
“Jim, in my opinion, could almost do anything if he put his heart into it,” he said on Dread Central’s Development Hell podcast. “For Jim to do it, we’d have to do something that was another leap in the Elm Street series — a little bit like what Wes did with his very meta New Nightmare. I think Jim would only consider it, and I’d only consider harnessing Jim, if there was a bold new direction for Elm Street.”
In 2023, Englund said he’s “too old and thick to play Freddy now” after originating the role in the first 1984 slasher installment, adding: “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.”
The actor told Variety at the time that he thought Kevin Bacon “would be interesting” as Freddy, explaining, “I know he respects the genre, and he’s such a fine physical actor.”
After Englund’s last turn as the burned boogeyman in Freddy vs. Jason (2003), Jackie Earle Haley took over the role in director Samuel Bayer’s 2010 remake of Wes Craven‘s original film.
Russell said he’d “love to do another Elm Street if there was the full support of everybody,” adding that Patricia Arquette, who starred as Kristen Parker in his sequel, “has said she’d like to do it again in the press.”
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