Trying to fill big shoes is one thing–trying to fill the most infamous glove in horror is quite another.
And Kevin Bacon this week commented, per a report on Screen Rant, on the rumors that he might one day replace Robert Englund in the iconic Freddy Krueger role in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
Englund officially retired from playing his best-known role back in 2017. “I’m too old to do another Freddy now,” he said during an interview. “If I do a fight scene now, it’s got to be real minimal because I can’t snap my head for eight different takes and different angles. My spine gets sore.”
The actor acknowledged he “can still be mean and scary, but I’m mostly relegated now to sort of Van Helsing roles–old doctors and stuff like that. So, it’s fun that the last moment of me ever playing Freddy is a wink to the audience,” Englund said, referencing his appearance in Freddy vs. Jason in 2003.
But, getting back to Bacon taking over the mantle, he would seem a good fit. He got his start in the genre in the first Friday the 13th (with a spear in his neck), has battled sand worms in Tremors, has starred in Hollow Man, warred with ghosts in Stir of Echoes and will play the villain’s role in the upcoming reboot of The Toxic Avenger.
Given all that, what does Bacon have to say for himself? A noncommittal, but hopeful, “Never say never,” he told Screen Rant. “I never say never. I really do follow that. There’s very few things that I go, ‘Nah, nah’. You just never know.”
So, keep reading Horror News Network for all updates on the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
