Robert Englund could be about to make his final appearance as Freddy Krueger – in an episode of The Goldbergs, of all places – but the actor is still offering ideas of how the mythology of A Nightmare on Elm Street can continue from here.
Though the dream demon’s origins have been eluded to in dialogue and flashbacks throughout the slasher saga, the only project we’ve received that’s fully dedicated to exploring the serial killer’s early years was the 1988 Tobe Hooper-helmed pilot for the Freddy’s Nightmares show. At the recent Monster Mania convention in Maryland, however, Englund, showed his support for the idea of delving into this backstory with a full movie.
“I’ve always thought that [not having a prequel] is a misruling in the mythology of A Nightmare on Elm Street,” Englund told the crowd. “It got close to being rectified with Tobe Hooper’s pilot for the TV series, and there was a script that was supposedly to be directed by John McNaughton, who did Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. There was a prequel script… I think it was called Krueger: The First Kills. And it was… the last children being killed… the two detectives that found Freddy and busted him… then the body of the film were the ambulance-chasing, sleazy lawyers that get Freddy off.”
While the horror icon himself would presumably be the focus of such a script, Englund recalls how a highlight of this unrealized project was the pair of lawyers who get Freddy off on a mistrial.
“The lawyers are actually the best parts [of that script]. There’s two of them. Freddy in court… Freddy at the table… Freddy on the witness stand… Freddy in jail. But it’s about the lawyers getting him off. They get him off and Freddy gloats too much on the courtroom stairs. The end of the movie is Freddy being burned alive. I’ve had a fascination with these projects since I did the pilot with Tobe Hooper.”
Though Englund said last year that he considers himself too old to play Freddy, the star recently surprised fans with the news that he’ll be reprising his role for The Goldbergs. As for whether the actor would consider further involvement with the Elm Street franchise in the future, it seems that a cameo isn’t out of the question, provided the material earns it.
“I would love to cameo in anything with integrity, connected with the franchise.”
On a related note, a fan video was posted online earlier this year which edited together various scenes from Freddy’s backstory into chronological order, forming a short film in itself. Though it’s a nice little tribute to this most notorious of screen killers, an official prequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street could be pretty sweet.