'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (2010) 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (2010) It's not really a mystery as to who played Freddy Krueger. You're probably thinking of one of the most familiar faces in the horror genre already, and it's Robert Englund's. He made those pointy gloves and sweaters his forever in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street.
But the glove has been passed around more than you’d think, and someone new is about to put it on. Per The Wrap, Paramount locked down U.S. rights to Wes Craven’s original script through its new horror label, Paramount Primal, which is run by the producers behind Barbarian. So we might see a new iteration of the slasher soon.
Before anyone casts the next Freddy, here’s who’s terrorized Elm Street so far, including the icon, the stand-ins, the younger versions, and the remake.
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The Main Man: Robert Englund
“I’m what’s known as a character actor, and I began playing sidekicks in the 1970s. Burt Reynolds, Jan Michael Vincent, Peter Strauss; I was their best friend, the buddy, the pal, the sidekick. In the old days, in the ’30s and ’40s and ’50s, the big stars’ sidekicks could be played by old men, but they began to get younger and younger, so I would have aged out of those roles, even though I sidekicked all the big stars in the ’70s. That’s where I fit back then. I’m so grateful that I stumbled into the horror genre."
By 1984, Englund was known for the miniseries V, and Freddy fit into a gap in his calendar. In an interview with Looper, he explained he had a break between the V miniseries and the TV series that followed.
"So I did it, and lo and behold it was also an overnight international success. And it made me an international actor overnight. Because of that happy accident, I was able to start working abroad."
Craven told Vulture he’d had trouble finding an actor with the ferocity he wanted for Freddy, and he wanted a trained actor in the role.
"I couldn't find an actor to play Freddy Krueger with the sense of ferocity I was seeking. Everyone was too quiet, too compassionate toward children. Then Robert Englund auditioned ... Robert wasn't as tall I'd hoped, and he had baby fat on his face, but he impressed me with his willingness to go to the dark places in his mind. Robert understood Freddy."
For years, retellings have said someone else had the part first. Looper repeats the version from the documentary Never Sleep Again, which is that Craven signed David Warner, who exited over a scheduling conflict. But fan site Halloween Love reports that the story unraveled when researchers dug into it for the book version of Never Sleep Again. Englund later said at a London convention that Warner doesn’t remember ever being contacted.
Whether he was first choice or not, Englund made Freddy his own. A year later, New Line almost let him go.
The Almost-Recast Freddy’s Revenge
Englund almost didn’t come back. Director Jack Sholder told Nerdist that New Line balked when Englund’s agent asked for a raise, and executives figured anyone could wear the costume.
Sholder said:
I said, 'I think he’s really good. I think you really need him.' And they said, 'Well, we could just get anybody to dress him up in that outfit. That’ll be fine.' And I spoke up and said, 'It’s really not that kind of character.' I mean, it’s not like Jason, who kills somebody and then goes away. This guy actually is a real character and has dialogue. And so luckily, they were finally able to make a deal with him.
It so happened that they were able to test the studio's theory. Englund wasn’t available for the first week of the shoot, so the production put a stand-in in the costume for one shot. Sholder said the stand-in was a random guy who happened to fit the wardrobe, and that he kept lumbering around like Frankenstein’s monster. It didn't work.
New Line made the deal, and Englund kept the job for almost two decades. After the 1984 original, Englund came back for seven more films, finishing with Freddy vs. Jason in 2003.
'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (2010) Credit: Warner Bros.
The Stand-Ins, Doubles, and Young Versions
Like any slasher villain, Freddy had help with the dangerous and impossible stuff. According to Bloody Disgusting, there are a handful of performers who took on the role. Stuntman Anthony Cecere doubled Freddy for the fire stunt in the 1984 original. In Part 5, Michael Bailey Smith played “Super Freddy,” and Noble Craig, an actor without legs, played Freddy emerging from Alice.
Fun fact: Cecere also turns up in the world of Ghostface as a Scream stunt coordinator.
Freddy’s Dead went backward into Freddy’s past, which meant casting a younger Freddy for the first time. Looper reports that Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare split the role among three performers in 1991. Chason Schirmer played Freddy as a boy, and Tobe Sexton played him as a teenager.
That film’s director, Rachel Talalay, told Nerdist that after the darker Part 5 underperformed, New Line’s priority for Part 6 was commercial appeal, so that meant a 3D release, a big title, and more jokes. That explains why the franchise was ready to tinker with Freddy’s origins by then.
The Remake Freddy: Jackie Earle Haley
In 2010, someone else finally got top billing as Freddy. In Platinum Dunes’ reboot, directed by Samuel Bayer and shot in Chicago, Jackie Earle Haley took over.
In a WonderCon interview with The Fresno Bee (via Boulder Weekly), Haley described trying to give hardcore fans something familiar while still making the role his.
“I just thought it was a real interesting kind of fascinating character, especially in this action-hero world. He’s
definitely an unhinged character, and that always kind of fascinates me,” Haley said.
The remake divided fans, and the planned sequel never happened. That’s why the next Freddy question is so open. It won't be Englund again.
“Oh, I’m too old, they gotta find somebody new,” he told Inverse.
Who do you think it should be?
