It’s now been 15 years since Freddy Vs. Jason, the last time horror icon Robert Englund strapped on the clawed glove and dapper fedora of Frederick Krueger, Professional Pun Murderer. (Jackie Earle Haley took on the role for the inevitable 2010 reboot of the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise.) But now, Elm Street’s most relentlessly chatty slayer of children is making his way to Jenkintown, PA (and network TV), with ABC announcing this week that Englund will reprise the role on an upcoming Halloween episode of The Goldbergs.
To be fair, the 1980s were the last time Krueger was consistently capable of inspiring real terror in audiences—poor guy just hasn’t been the same since he got his ass kicked by Dokken—and so The Goldbergs’ period setting is probably the perfect place for him to pop his head up again to scare the shit out of some kids. (Plus, it allows us all to skip the inevitable moment when horror film nerds soapbox about how 1994's New Nightmare is the superior Elm Street movie.) (It totally is, though.)