Although Robert Englund is set to reprise the role of child killer Freddy Krueger in this month’s Halloween episode of the U.S. sitcom The Goldbergs, it’s likely we’ve seen the last of his Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs on the big screen, with the actor stating on multiple occasions that he believes he’s now too old to portray the iconic character.
Englund played Freddy on eight occasions between 1984 and 2003, as well as starring in the TV series Freddy’s Nightmares, and during a recent appearance at the Monster Mania convention in Maryland, he’s now discussed one unrealised project from the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise – a prequel entitled Krueger: The First Kills.
“I’ve always thought that [not having a prequel] is a misruling in the mythology of A Nightmare on Elm Street,” said Englund (via Bloody Disgusting). “It got close to being rectified with Tobe Hooper’s pilot for the TV series, and there was a script that was supposedly to be directed by John McNaughton, who did Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. There was a prequel script… I think it was called Krueger: The First Kills. And it was… the last children being killed… the two detectives that found Freddy and busted him… then the body of the film were the ambulance-chasing, sleazy lawyers that get Freddy off.”
“The lawyers are actually the best parts [of that script],” he continued. “There’s two of them. Freddy in court… Freddy at the table… Freddy on the witness stand… Freddy in jail. But it’s about the lawyers getting him off. They get him off and Freddy gloats too much on the courtroom stairs. The end of the movie is Freddy being burned alive. I’ve had a fascination with these projects since I did the pilot with Tobe Hooper.”
The Tobe Hooper pilot Englund is referring to is the 1988 pilot episode to Freddy’s Nightmares, entitled ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’, which explored Krueger’s initial arrest and trial for the murder of children in Springfield, and his physical death at the hands of his victims’ parents after getting off on a technicality. It’s a solid episode, and definitely worth watching if you haven’t seen it. Check it out here…
