{"id":267889,"date":"2025-11-03T01:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T01:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/267889\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T01:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T01:10:11","slug":"why-the-original-freddy-krueger-thinks-an-elm-street-reboot-should-start-with-the-third-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/267889\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Original Freddy Krueger Thinks An Elm Street Reboot Should Start With The Third Film"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Even as franchise revivals and 1980s nostalgia have become Hollywood&#8217;s bread and butter, there&#8217;s one horror series that hasn&#8217;t been squeezed to diminishing returns. &#8220;A Nightmare on Elm Street,&#8221; once a staple of slasher cinema, hasn&#8217;t been awakened in the past 15 years and counting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sure, the series&#8217; influence is still felt. Both horror films like &#8220;Black Phone 2&#8221; and TV like &#8220;Stranger Things&#8221; season 4 have included <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/movies\/articles\/black-phone-2s-grabber-wants-140000150.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:dream-haunting killers in the vein of Freddy Krueger.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dream-haunting killers in the vein of Freddy Krueger.<\/a>\u00a0But why hasn&#8217;t the\u00a0actual &#8220;Nightmare&#8221; been touched for well over a decade? Series creator Wes Craven passed away in 2015, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/1688708\/horror-icon-robert-englund-never-play-freddy-krueger-again\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund feels he has aged out of the role;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund feels he has aged out of the role<\/a>. The last &#8220;Elm Street&#8221; movie was a remake of the original, released in 2010, which recast Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy. The movie was such a disaster that it may have dissuaded other filmmakers or studios from touching the franchise and trying to cast another Englund-less Freddy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/movies\/articles\/nightmare-elm-street-series-dead-170000697.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:We at \/Film have some ideas for how to bring back &quot;A Nightmare on Elm Street,&quot;;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">We at \/Film have some ideas for how to bring back &#8220;A Nightmare on Elm Street,&#8221;<\/a> as does Mr. Englund himself. In a recent interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/bloody-disgusting.com\/interviews\/3907060\/robert-englund-talks-the-future-of-nightmare-on-elm-street-who-should-play-freddy-next-interview\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Bloody Disgusting;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Bloody Disgusting<\/a>, Englund said a new &#8220;Nightmare&#8221; film shouldn&#8217;t try to remake the original, but rather the third film, 1987&#8217;s &#8220;Dream Warriors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I think if they were gonna reboot it, they should probably start with &#8216;Dream Warriors,&#8217; because it has that great opening that&#8217;s sort of like &#8216;Previously on Nightmare on Elm Street,'&#8221; Englund said. &#8220;Dream Warriors&#8221; was a more direct sequel to the original &#8220;Nightmare&#8221; than &#8220;A Nightmare on Elm Street 2.&#8221; Craven returned to write the script (though Chuck Russell directed), and star Heather Langenkamp returned as Nancy Thompson. Nancy had become a psychiatrist, and the film features her working with teens in a mental hospital who are being haunted and murdered by Freddy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/1813582\/best-male-actors-ranked\/?zsource=yahoo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:30 Best Male Actors Of All Time, Ranked;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">30 Best Male Actors Of All Time, Ranked<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Robert Englund also suggests a Nightmare on Elm Street prequel<img alt=\"Freddy Krueger standing at end of dark hallway in &quot;A Nightmare on Elm Street&quot;\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/3e81d6b2351285a1953be0bb1718ac97.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Freddy Krueger standing at end of dark hallway in &#8220;A Nightmare on Elm Street&#8221; &#8211; New Line Cinema<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The opening scene of &#8220;Dream Warriors&#8221; features Kristen (Patricia Arquette) trying not to fall asleep due to some previous bad dreams. When she does, she&#8217;s pulled into Freddy&#8217;s realm and barely survives. The dreamscape is filled with creepy little kids and dead bodies representing Freddy&#8217;s past victims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/658607\/every-a-nightmare-on-elm-street-movie-ranked-worst-to-best\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:&quot;Dream Warriors&quot; is unanimously considered one of the best &quot;Elm Street&quot; movies;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">&#8220;Dream Warriors&#8221; is unanimously considered one of the best &#8220;Elm Street&#8221; movies<\/a>, but it&#8217;s not the only option for a new &#8220;Nightmare&#8221; film. There&#8217;s also potential, Englund said, in a prequel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Freddy&#8217;s backstory, as told in the original &#8220;A Nightmare on Elm Street,&#8221; is that he was a serial killer targeting the children of Springwood, Ohio. After he was caught and tried, he got off on a legal technicality. Vengeful parents tracked him to his hideout and set it on fire, burning him alive. Freddy&#8217;s return in children&#8217;s dreams is him exacting vengeance on their parents from beyond the grave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">From 1988 to 1990, Englund starred as Freddy in the horror anthology series, &#8220;Freddy&#8217;s Nightmares.&#8221; The series mostly consisted of standalone horror tales, but the pilot, &#8220;No More Mr. Nice Guy&#8221; (directed by Tobe Hooper), showed Freddy&#8217;s trial and execution. &#8220;They could do it as a prequel, like Tobe Hooper did on the series,&#8221; Englund said. &#8220;Really do a backstory before, so you have the story of Nancy and Tina and Glen and everything going on, but you start even before that. That&#8217;s what I would do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Englund suggests\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/1137898\/asking-doug-jones-his-favorite-character-is-like-asking-him-to-pick-his-favorite-child\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:&quot;someone like a Doug Jones,&quot; the actor famous for playing made-up characters;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">&#8220;someone like a Doug Jones,&#8221; the actor famous for playing made-up characters<\/a> in Guillermo del Toro films like &#8220;Pan&#8217;s Labyrinth&#8221; and &#8220;The Shape of Water,&#8221; could play the next Freddy. If Jones can act while playing inhuman characters like a faun, acting with Freddy&#8217;s burn scar make-up should be no challenge at all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">If you&#8217;re looking for the easiest way to keep up with all the major movie and TV news, why not <a href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.slashfilm.com\/newsletter-syndicated\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:sign up to our free newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">sign up to our free newsletter<\/a>? You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=slashfilm.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:add us as a preferred search source;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">add us as a preferred search source<\/a> on Google.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/2008276\/freddy-krueger-robert-englund-nightmare-on-elm-street-reboot-start-third-film\/?zsource=yahoo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:original article on SlashFilm;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">original article on SlashFilm<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even as franchise revivals and 1980s nostalgia have become Hollywood&#8217;s bread and butter, there&#8217;s one horror series that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[143770,88,118103,206,143771,134293,46645],"class_list":{"0":"post-267889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-dream-warriors","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-freddy-krueger","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-nancy-thompson","13":"tag-nightmare-on-elm-street","14":"tag-robert-englund"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}