Last year, we heard that actor and producer Elijah Wood had his sights set on reviving the horror franchise A Nightmare on Elm Street. That obviously hasn’t happened yet, but if it does, there are a lot of questions to be asked about where to take the franchise and the character of Freddy Krueger. Well, Elijah Wood is still game to do a new Nightmare on Elm Street movie, on one condition. On the subject of Freddy, Elijah Wood said:
You have to bring Robert Englund back for one more film. I think, especially if you’re going to open up a new franchise and take it in different directions, you have to establish it with him and then you can move on. I don’t think it’s interesting to tell the same story over and over again, we don’t need another origin story of Freddy Krueger, I don’t think it should even really be so much about Freddy.
According to Elijah Wood, the starting point for any new Nightmare on Elm Street film or series has to be the original Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. Save for the poorly received 2010 remake where Jackie Earle Haley donned the claws, Robert Englund has played horror icon Freddy Krueger in every one of the franchise’s films since Wes Craven’s 1984 original A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Elijah Wood would bring him back once more.
Elijah Wood still wants to get a crack at the property, but whether he gets to do it or not, as far as he’s concerned, any new Nightmare on Elm Street movie would have to include Robert Englund. However, that's not to say that Elijah Wood would want his A Nightmare on Elm Street to be a purely Freddy movie or that he would just want to remake the original and do what’s been done before.
On the contrary, as Elijah Wood told ComingSoon, if you want to open up the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and take it in new directions, it is especially important that you start with Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger. In his mind, it is critical that you start with that established character and performance, and then you have the freedom to take Nightmare wherever you want.
Elijah Wood would like to take A Nightmare on Elm Street to new places as well. He has no interest in playing the hits or simply retelling the same story over and over again. Nor does Elijah Wood want to make that all too common horror movie mistake of doing another origin story for the villain.
The actor didn’t say what his ideas for A Nightmare on Elm Street are, although in the past he’s said that he and his business partner Daniel Noah have a specific take that would be exciting and surprising. Whatever it is, it seems Freddy would not be the main character. It sounds like Freddy would obviously be a part of it, but Elijah Wood’s vision for the franchise isn’t specifically about him, which is intriguing.
It basically sounds like Elijah Wood envisions something of the in vogue rebootquel approach to A Nightmare on Elm Street. He isn’t interested in retelling the stories of the past or being beholden to them. Instead, he wants to utilize the central element of the franchise’s past, namely Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger, to hand things off to whatever the future will be.
Whether he will get to do that or not is another question. It seems that, as is seemingly the case with many horror properties, the rights to A Nightmare on Elm Street are rather complicated, and Elijah Wood is still working on that. Though if Elijah Wood and Daniel Noah get a crack at it, they will, of course, have to convince Robert Englund to come aboard.
Robert Englund has been pretty clear that he’s basically done and wants the filmmakers to find a great Freddy replacement. However, the actor has hinted that he could come back for one more movie, though he doesn’t want to remake the first film again. Those opinions seem to line up with Elijah Wood’s vision for the franchise, so perhaps like minds will meet and Robert Englund could don the claws one last time.
Elijah Wood currently has a movie in theaters in the Nicolas Cage horror film, Color Out of Space, on which he served as a producer. Check out our 2020 Release Schedule to see what other movies you can look forward to this year.
