Robert Englund Wants Kevin Bacon to Play Freddy Krueger

Robert Englund’s most iconic role, Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, is a nigh-impossible performance to replicate, as evidenced by the 2010 remake of the original film. The task might be difficult, but Englund recently confirmed with CinemaBlend he’d be interested in seeing Kevin Bacon‘s take on the character.

“Well the gossip I’ve heard, and I don’t know how valid this is, but there has been some talk about using, or perhaps he’s been approached, Kevin Bacon,” Englund pointed out. “I think that would be great. He’s in one of my favorite little horror movies, Stir of Echoes, and you should check it out if you haven’t seen in. And I just think Kevin’s the right size. I think he respects horror movies. He doesn’t make fun of them. I think it would be real interesting.”

Horror franchises like Halloween and Friday the 13th often have a revolving door of actors who embrace the main villain, but as those killers often wear masks, many audiences don’t notice a difference. A staple of Krueger in the original series isn’t just his intimidating look, but also his delivery of his twistedly sarcastic humor that he uses to mock his victims.

Englund last played Krueger for 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason in which the killer faced off against Jason Voorhees, one of the first installments in the concept of shared universes made popular with many superhero films. Jakie Earle Haley played Krueger in 2010’s Nightmare on Elm Street reboot, but with that film intended to embrace the more horrific elements of earlier installments, the humor was toned down.

There are currently no plans for a new Nightmare on Elm Street, but Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg expressed his interest in the project earlier this year on Reddit.

“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about what fun franchises New Line has like A Nightmare on Elm street and Critters,” the director confessed. “Might be fun if you took something like that in a different direction from previous installments. Like instead of remaking Nightmare you do some continuation of it in the same world kind of thing.”