Robert Englund reprises his iconic A Nightmare on Elm Street role of Freddy Krueger for an upcoming episode of The Goldbergs, marking the first time he’s played the character since 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason. The creator of the series, Adam Goldberg, recently detailed the process of convincing Englund to play the character, which was made possible when Goldberg demonstrated his love for the character.
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“Convincing Robert Englund to come out of retirement to play Freddy Krueger one last time is a true bucket-list moment for me as a writer,” Goldberg shared in a statement. “I’ve been a longtime obsessive fan, collecting Freddy artwork and action figures. It took me months to convince Robert to revisit the character. Luckily, his manager Joe Rice is a big Goldbergs fan and helped me convince Robert that the world needed to see Freddy one last time.”
Englund first played the character in 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, reprising his role in eight sequels. While the actor has sported the impressive makeup for convention appearances, his sitcom appearance is his first on-screen portrayal in 15 years, clearly a result of his fondness for the material.
“The moment Robert read the scene, I envisioned he recognized that I was a true fan who knew the voice of Freddy,” he continued. “On our first call when we went over the script, I told him, ‘Of course I knew how to write lines for Freddy. He traumatized me as a child and is burned into my brain!’”
The appearance will likely be more tame than his appearances in feature films, yet with fans having waited since 2010’s reboot to see Krueger in action, we’ll take any kind of appearance we can get.
“Watching Robert spend four hours getting back into makeup and bringing our script to life was a true dream and by far a highlight of the show for our cast and crew,” Goldberg added. “The story in this episode is actually true — after I saw Elm Street 3, I didn’t sleep for a week and my mom was beside herself and desperate to fix the problem.”
In the episode, “Despite Beverly’s wishes, Jackie’s parents allow Adam to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street and a disagreement between the families ensues. But Beverly dreams of facing off with horror icon Freddy Krueger (guest star Robert Englund), which teaches her an important lesson about her son’s relationship with Jackie. Meanwhile, Erica realizes she’s not as popular as she once was as she starts hanging out at William Penn Academy despite the fact she’s no longer a student there.”
You can check out Englund’s appearance in the special episode of The Goldbergs when it airs Wednesday, October 24th.
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