The newest competitor aiming to win the streaming wars is HBO Max, which launched this week with a number of exciting titles, including all the cinematic entries into the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. In addition to the seven original installments in the series, the service also offers the crossover event Freddy vs. Jason, which pits the iconic Freddy Krueger against Friday the 13th‘s Jason Voorhees, as well as the 2010 reboot of the original film, which saw Jackie Early Haley take over the Krueger role from Robert Englund, who played him in all previous entries. The TV series Freddy’s Nightmares, however, is not streaming on the service.
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The debut film landed in theaters from writer/director Wes Craven back in 1984 and, while it delivered audiences a number of expected slasher tropes, its otherworldly concept of a murderer who could kill his victims in their dreams excited fans in ways other slashers couldn’t, quickly making Krueger one of the defining movie villains of the ’80s.
Sadly, much like the fate suffered by the Friday the 13th series, the ’90s and ’00s weren’t as successful for the franchise, with the last entries in both series being reboots in 2009 and 2010. While various reports of both series being revived have emerged in recent years, no substantial progress has been earned by either franchise.
Given that he helped define the role for a majority of audiences, fans still look to Englund for updates about what could be next for the series. Whatever direction will be pursued next, we shouldn’t expect to see him reprise his role, but he confessed that he would like to appear in a cameo capacity.
“I would like to be, perhaps, invited back to do a cameo,” Englund revealed to ComicBook.com earlier this year. “I was thinking maybe like Nightmare on Elm Street 3, if they ever get around to rebooting that episode of the franchise, the Dream Warriors, I think it would be fun for me to cameo, maybe, as the dream therapist.”
He added, “I think it would be fun to switch the gender, let me play as the sort of skeptical therapist who doesn’t believe there could be a collective nightmare where everybody is dreaming of the same old guy in a red and green sweater and a fedora with a claw hand made out of a garden glove and fish knives. I think it would be fun. There’s a tradition in horror movies and in remakes in bringing someone from the original back to cameo in them and I think that would be kind of fun to do.”
Stay tuned for updates on the future of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
Will you be checking out the films on the service? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
