While there has not been much news about a Nightmare On Elm Street reboot recently, Robert Englund’s role in Stranger Things season 4 could soon change this. The Nightmare On Elm Street franchise has been dormant since 2010’s critically-derided remake of the 1984 original. While that re-imagining was widely reviled by fans and critics alike, as a series Nightmare On Elm Street remains one of slasher cinema’s biggest properties.
As a result, the possibility of a new Nightmare On Elm Street reboot is still an exciting prospect, despite the many challenges facing any attempt to revive the franchise. Until now, those issues seem to have put producers off revisiting the series, but this may change with the arrival of Stranger Things season 4. Original Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund plays a pivotal role in the long-awaited new season of the Netflix series, and this part could be instrumental in cultivating interest in a Nightmare On Elm Street revival.
Englund is not the first 80s icon to appear on Stranger Things, nor would he be the first actor to parlay this comeback into further new projects thanks to the show renewing audience interest in his work. Sean Astin played Winona Ryder’s love interest Bob in Stranger Things season 2, while Cary Elwes appeared in Stranger Things season 3 and ended up headlining a Netflix Christmas movie shortly after. However, Englund’s appearance in the penultimate Stranger Things season could be the first chance that the show has to bring back an entire franchise. The highly-hyped Stranger Things season 4 sees Robert England play a mysterious character and, if either of two major theories about his role proves to be true, this could spell good news for the dormant Nightmare On Elm Street series.
Why There Are No New Nightmare On Elm Street Movies
While 2010’s Nightmare On Elm Street reboot was a critical failure that proved unable to replace Englund’s iconic Krueger with a miscast Jackie Earle Haley, this was not the only thing standing in the way of the franchise's potential revival in recent years. Original Nightmare On Elm Street creator Wes Craven passed away in 2015, which understandably sapped the momentum from demands for the series to return (although the success of Scream 2022 proved that reviving Craven’s franchises could work if done right). Furthermore, Nightmare On Elm Street, like fellow iconic slasher series Friday the 13th, can’t copy Halloween 2018’s successful reboot formula since the franchise’s messy chronology prohibits a “clean break” retcon. A new Nightmare On Elm Street would need to reckon with the complicated, contradictory storylines of Freddy Vs Jason, 1994's New Nightmare, and the original series, none of which are particularly compelling plots to bring back — particularly when Freddy Krueger’s original creator is no longer around to ensure quality control.
How Stranger Things Connects To Nightmare On Elm Street
Throughout seasons 1–3, Stranger Things has borrowed a lot of horror imagery from the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. Perhaps the most notable case of this creative inspiration was the many moments when Stranger Things hero Will suffered glitchy visions of the Upside-Down which were almost identical to the way Freddy’s victims wandered into the dreamworld unknowingly. The Upside-Down itself, with its blue-tinged, grimy mirror image of reality, was not unlike Freddy’s nightmarish home which twisted the comfortable suburban landscape of teen movies into a creepy, shadowy netherworld. However, the connection between Nightmare On Elm Street and Stranger Things has been solidified with Robert Englund’s casting in season 4. Stranger Things season 4 will go from merely referencing Nightmare On Elm Street to outright recreating elements of what made the slasher so successful, if popularly fan theories are to be believed.
Who Robert Englund Plays In Stranger Things Season 4
Officially, Robert Englund plays Robert Creel in Stranger Things season 4. A man who lost his mind and murdered his family, Creel is now housed in a facility for the criminally insane which is where the heroes of Stranger Things encounter him. However, while this is all the information that the creators of Stranger Things have offered about Englund’s character so far, there is a popular fan theory that posits another, darker role for Englund. According to this theory, Englund is rumored to also be playing Vecna, the monstrous big bad of Stranger Things season 4 who has consumed Creel’s soul much like the Mind Flayer did to Billy. If this theory proves true, it could be great news for the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise.
How A Major Stranger Things Fan Theory Affects The NOES Franchise
If it turns out that the villainous monster Vecna is the character that Englund plays in Stranger Things season 4, this role could be a proving ground for a Nightmare On Elm Street reboot. Millions of viewers (who already enjoy 80s nostalgia, judging by their Stranger Things fandom) are about to see Freddy Krueger’s original actor terrorize teens as a scar-faced supernatural monster living in an alternate dimension. If that doesn’t prove to studios that a Nightmare On Elm Street reboot is overdue, nothing will.
How Another Stranger Things Fan Theory Affects The NOES Franchise
While it is an exciting prospect to see Englund play a major horror bad guy again, there is another take on his character that could prove equally good for the Nightmare On Elm Street series. If the theory that Englund’s character Creel is a surprise hero and secretly innocent of the crimes he is accused of turns out to be true, then Stranger Things viewers will see a softer side of the horror icon. In this instance, a Nightmare On Elm Street reboot that takes a more complicated approach to Freddy Krueger could be on the cards. In the original franchise, Freddy is an utterly irredeemable monster, a leering, sadistic villain with no human side and no ambiguity surrounding his evil.
However, if the success of 2021’s Candyman reboot proved anything, it was that many slasher fans aren’t averse to seeing their favorite monsters made more sympathetic and human. As a result of Candyman’s critical and commercial success, Nightmare On Elm Street could use the sympathy that Englund’s against type Stranger Things hero engenders in viewers and translate it into a retelling that makes Freddy a more complicated figure. An older Freddy could capitalize on the slasher franchise trend of revising villains to be more human while bringing the Nightmare On Elm Street series back to life, all thanks to Robert Englund's Stranger Things season 4 role.