Robert Englund recently made an appearance at Belfast Comic-Con, discussing his upcoming projects The Midnight Man and Nightworld. But, as it inevitably does, chatter turned to the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise, the 2010 remake, and his possible return to the series.
“I think they just brought it out too soon [after the Blu-ray release of the original series], but it had an amazing cast,” Englund said, praising Rooney Mara and Clancy Brown specifically. “They reshot the opening and it threw the movie off kilter. You don’t see any of the people happy go-lucky, they’re never untainted,” he said, referring to the pharmaceutically doped-up teenagers in Samuel Bayer‘s remake. “They’re practically zombies from the get-go because they’re haunted by Freddy, and I think that was a miscalculation. You need to see before and after so you can invest emotionally with the children.” The criticism makes sense—even Amanda Wyss and Heather Langenkamp had a few laughs at Johnny Depp’s expense before Wyss was brutally dragged across the ceiling of her mother’s bedroom—but, on the other hand, portraying teenagers circa 2010 as mindless zombies may also be accurate.
The 70-year-old actor, who brought to life the most popular child murderer of the ’80s, also discussed a possible return to the Elm Street franchise. “There’s been some talk that they might reboot Nightmare 3, which may be the most popular of all the films,” Englund said of 1987’s Dream Warriors, which original writer Wes Craven had a razor-fingered hand in. “I would certainly like to be invited to do a cameo,” Englund added. “Maybe play the cantankerous old professor or the group therapy guy that doesn’t believe they’re having nightmares.”
Fans have been dreaming of Englund returning to Elm Street to portray the iconic villain one more time, and—let’s face it—there will be another reboot. And with a Friday The 13th redux right around the corner and John Carpenter returning to the Halloween franchise, it is a possibility that the filmmakers could get him back into the sweater, hat, and glove just one more time. With the proper persuasion (i.e., lots of money), nightmares can come true. As long as it’s not another origin story, right?
[Via Square Eyed]