While countless horror fans have spent the past two decades dreaming about Robert Englund returning as Freddy Krueger for another Nightmare on Elm Street movie, the legendary actor has always figured that Freddy vs. Jason would be his final outing on the big screen as the fedora-wearing murderer.
Prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Englund had participated in various interviews to help promote his new documentary, dubbed Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story. As another Freddy movie starring Englund is still in great demand with horror fans, Englund was asked about the possibility in several of these recent interviews. He consistently said he was done playing Freddy in Nightmare on Elm Street movies, at one point elaborating how he’s personally known that since filming Freddy vs. Jason.
“I kind of knew after 2004 that I wasn’t up to playing Freddy again,” Englund told Insider. “I was in my 50s, and Freddy vs. Jason took a lot out of me. I kind of knew I didn’t have a lot of stunt work left in me, or a lot of takes to physicalize it.”
Adding that age was also noticeably taking its toll on Englund’s body, the actor added, “And my torso had shifted, along with my face getting older, which doesn’t matter because I’m under all that crap — that makeup. But my torso… your weight shifts, and you get thicker as you get older. And I sort of lost Freddy’s silhouette.”
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Ronny Yu directed Freddy vs. Jason, which had gone through a plethora of different drafts and rewrites before landing on a final screenplay from Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. Also starring Ken Kirzinger as Jason Voorhees, the film hit theaters on Aug. 15, 2003. Following its release, only one more Nightmare on Elm Street film would be released, with Jackie Earle Haley succeeding Englund as the new Freddy Krueger. However, Englund did get the chance to reprise the role for a special appearance on The Goldbergs in 2018.
Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story is now available on digital outlets.
