Robert Englund has made it clear that he is done playing Freddy Krueger, but it seems that Jason Blum believes he could coax the actor back for one last time if Blumhouse can secure the rights to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The production company’s CEO has been trying to acquire the rights to both Elm Street and the Friday the 13th franchise, but with both film series having complex histories it has proved to be anything other than an easy process. Despite that, Blum believes that if he can get the rights to make a new Nightmare on Elm Street movie, he would want Englund as the iconic Freddy Krueger again.
While discussing Blumhouse’s new movie The Black Phone with ScreenRant, Blum was asked about how he has made clear he wants the rights to the two 80s horror franchises and responded, “I really do.” On the back of this, the question of Robert Englund possibly being out of the picture to reprise the role that fans only want to see him play was asked. Blum responded:
“I could make him come back. I can get anyone back. I mean, Ellen Burstyn was 87, and I got her back in The Exorcist. Yeah, 75 – he’s young.”
Robert Englund played the role of Freddy Krueger in every iteration of the character on screen with the exception of the attempted reboot of the franchise over a decade ago. If there was any confirmation needed that there really isn’t a Freddy Krueger without Robert Englund, then the reviews of Jackie Earle Haley’s take on the character provided it, even though the movie beat Freddy v Jason by $1 million to become the highest grossing movie of the franchise.
Blumhouse Have a Lot of Classic Horror Remakes On Their Radar.
While Jason Blum sees the Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises as his Holy Grail, Blumhouse already have a number of well-known projects in development, with even more on its hit list. After releasing a remake of Stephen King’s Firestarter to a dismal reception earlier this year, Blumhouse are going all on the world of Stephen King with new adaptations of Christine, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone and Later already in development, and The Dead Zone as a potential target for the future.
One of the biggest projects coming from Blumhouse in the near future is a new reboot of The Exorcist, which is said to be coming in the form of a trilogy of movies to be directed by new Halloween director David Gordon Green. Talking about the reboot, Green previously said:
"The Exorcist has been written. That was one of my pandemic projects. It's not inaccurate [that it will be a sequel to the original film]. I like all the Exorcist movies. And not only do I like them, I think they can all fall into the acceptable mythology for what I'm doing. It's not like I'm saying, 'Pretend that The Exorcist 2 never happened.' That's fine to exist. They're all fine to exist, and I enjoy all of them.”
As mentioned by Blum, Ellen Burstyn has returned to the franchise for the first time since the original 1973 movie, and has already completed her part on the new version. Audiences will be able to return to the franchise themselves when the first movie of the new trilogy is released next year, by which time Jason Blum will hope to have his hands on the rights to bring A Nightmare on Elm Street back one more time.