Robert Englund Reflects on the 15-Year Drought of ‘Elm Street’ Films and What’s Next
The “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, which will hit its 41st anniversary this coming Sunday, is a unique specimen in the horror genre right now. Its signature villain – the blade-gloved, dream-invading Freddy Krueger – stands alongside Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Ghostface as one of the four most instantly recognizable horror icons in existence. However, of this quartet, only Freddy belongs to a franchise that has lain completely dormant for 15 years now. Robert Englund, the actor who embodied the supernatural villain so indelibly for the great majority of the films, spoke this past Halloween about what may be in store for his most famous series.
The “Elm Street” franchise – An Overview
“A Nightmare on Elm Street” is the brainchild of Wes Craven (1939-2015), often proclaimed a Master of Horror, who was also responsible for the “Scream” franchise. Its villain, Freddy Krueger, is the vengeful ghost of a child murderer who met his corporeal end through vigilante justice and now gets his revenge by stalking the dreams of teenagers and murdering them as they sleep.
The original “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” released in 1984, is most commonly held to be the best one. The subsequent five films, released between 1985 and 1991, were not directed by Craven and not received nearly as well (though the first couple do stand out). Three years after 1991’s much-maligned “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare,” which seemed by its name alone to have brought the franchise to a close, Craven himself returned to make “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare,” in which Freddy Krueger leaves the realm of fiction and starts targeting the people responsible for the films.
“New Nightmare”‘s metafictional premise injected fresh energy into the aging franchise, but it didn’t herald a spate of sequels in the ensuing years. Since 1994, there have only been two additional “Nightmare” films: 2003’s crossover “Freddy Vs. Jason” and the 2010 remake of the original “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” the first entry for which Robert Englund did not return.
The “Elm Street” remake proved to be the most panned film in the entire franchise, widely criticized for its also-ran aspects. In the 15 years between its release and the present day, “Halloween” has gotten an entire trilogy of legacy sequels from Blumhouse, “Scream” has gotten three more films (and counting) under its belt, and even “Friday the 13th,” which has been greatly hindered by legal battles since the 2009 remake, managed to get one short film out this year. But no subsequent media has come out of the “Elm Street” franchise, leaving its enormous fanbase starved for Freddy’s next nightmare.
Robert Englund on His Icon’s Future
On October 31, Englund sat down with IndieWire in time for the November 1 40-year anniversary of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge,” a sequel that has become famous in the intervening decades for its heavy homoerotic subtext. Naturally, this film was the predominant topic of discussion, but towards the end of the interview, the conversation turned to the elephant in the room regarding the whole franchise as it stands in 2025.
Englund attributed the ongoing drought of “Elm Street” continuations to that classic fly in many IP ointments: legal trouble. “There are so many people involved who have a piece of the action,” he explained, “When Wes passed away, he left an awful lot of rights to his estate. He has many many rights that he worked out between character titles and names and plot and things like that.” Englund went on to name New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., Blumhouse, and Michael Bay (whose production company, Platinum Dunes, co-produced the remake) as parties involved in this rights tug-of-war.
Englund didn’t see any reason to blame the “Nightmare on Elm Street” remake for the franchise’s long dormancy. He had high praise for the acting talents of Rooney Mara (the remake’s final girl) and for his own replacement, Jackie Earle Haley. However, he opined that “the remake was premature,” and went on to argue that the original film shouldn’t be touched when the franchise is rebooted. “My theory would be, you don’t go near ‘Nightmare 1’ again,” he said, before suggesting that the next entry be either a prequel or a reboot of the third film, “Dream Warriors,” which is considered by many fans to be the best sequel.
Englund gave his own vision for the franchise’s future as follows: “I would do 3, 4, and 5. I’d reboot them. And then, to end the franchise, I would do the prequel.” He also suggested that “Freddy’s Revenge” might work well as a “standalone” reboot. In any case, he’s far from giving up hope of further Freddy fare: “I know, eventually, they are going to reboot the franchise.”
