Longtime A Nightmare on Elm Street star Robert Englund is reprising his most famous role — serial slasher and horror icon Freddy Krueger — in an upcoming Halloween-themed episode of ABC's hit '80s-set sitcom The Goldbergs.
The comedy, set around the misadventures of its titular family, recently revived another iconic character when Spaceballs star Rick Moranis lent his voice to the series in a cameo appearance as Darth Helmet.
Imaginative young filmmaker Adam Goldberg (Sean Giambrone) is typically responsible for the show's fantasy sequences, which often come by way of dreams — the exact method the razor-fingered murderer claims his prey.
Englund, who played Krueger across eight films beginning with the Wes Craven-directed 1984 classic, unveiled his idea for a potential series revival this summer that would see the character take on a horrific new appearance tailor-suited to the specific fears of each victim.
"If I had an Eli Roth budget I would have cast different actors to play Freddy for every potential victim," Englund said during a July convention appearance. "Because Freddy is only alive in the imagination of his future victim. They would talk about it at a slumber party or in a locker room at school, or on the bus going home. All we know about this Fred Krueger is he wears a hat, wears a red and green striped sweater and has a clawed hand. That's the specifics."
The 71-year-old actor expressed his hopes to be at least nominally involved in such a film, saying the new iteration could ultimately reveal England's Freddy as the final threat.
He previously told EW he's "too old now" to fully step back into Freddy's famous striped sweater.
"If I do a fight scene now it's got to be real minimal because I can't snap my head for eight different takes and different angles. My spine gets sore. I can still be mean and scary, but I'm mostly relegated now to sort of Van Helsing roles, old doctors and s—t," he said.
Englund added he "had a good run, I had a good time" and that he was "real happy" to have had a near 20-year run as the character on the big screen, with 2003's Freddy vs. Jason currently marking his last turn as the character.
The Goldbergs returns to ABC with its season six premiere Wednesday.