Samara Weaving Wants To Battle Freddy Krueger in The A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET Franchise

Samara Weaving (Ready or Not, The Babysitter) has enjoyed a lot of success in the horror genre, and it’s a genre that she would like to keep playing in. One franchise that she’d like to be a part of is the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, where she would like to face off with Freddy Krueger.

While at SXSW, Collider asked the actress what franchise she would like to appear in next and her answer was A Nightmare on Elm Street. Sure! I’d be up for watching Weaving fight Freddy Krueger!

Wes Craven’s classic horror celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and it’s been fourteen years since the last Elm Street movie was released, and that was the disappointing 2010 remake.

Over the years there has been talk about reviving the franchise, and a lot of directors have said that they would like a shot at it. But, as of right now, nothing is in development that we know of. Some of the directors who have expressed interest include Rob Savage (The Boogeyman) and Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass).

Savage said: "The one that comes to mind straight away is Nightmare on Elm Street. I'm sure it is for most horror directors. I know there's a bit of a rights issue there, so I don't know if Nightmare on Elm Street is going to continue anytime soon. That kind of horror storytelling that plays in that plays in that surreal dream space. It terrified me as a kid and I haven't really seen anything come close that plays in that space of not being able to trust what you can see and that space between waking and dreams. I love that as a sandbox to play in and it's up there with my favorite franchises."

Flanagan shared: “One of the [franchises] on my list forever has been A Nightmare on Elm Street. Boy, that would be fun. I have a whole take for it that I worked out a couple of years ago and my understanding is the rights situation for that title is so fraught, no one knows who controls it really, and no one knows who to pitch. So, I keep saying to my agents, 'Send me in on Nightmare on Elm Street,' and they're like, 'We'd love to, [but] we have no idea who you should talk to.' And I've talked to -- I spent almost a year of my life with [A Nightmare on Elm Street star] Heather Langenkamp, and we would talk about it. It's like, nobody knows what to do."

Then there’s actor and producer Elijah Wood, who would like to develop an Elm Street movie as well, saying: "We, personally, have talked a lot about, internally, Elm Street and how incredible it would be to play in that universe again and see that universe, to see Freddy [Krueger] and just that concept be explored again. That's something that we're fascinated in. Obviously, that is not a lesser-known, smaller thing that should be remade into a big one. But another one that I feel is exciting, I know that there's already a remake coming out, but we still really love Children of the Corn. I feel like that would be an exciting thing to ... from the ground up, taking it from the novel, not remaking the movie, but actually take the short story and flesh that out in an interesting way."

Then there’s original star Heather Langenkamp, who would be interested in reprising her role of Nancy. She said a couple of years ago, “If Nancy could fight Freddy one last time, I would really like that. Gosh, I’d love to see a future in that.”

Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger has his own idea of how the franchise could be revived. He thinks that rather than recreating the origin story of Krueger, elements of the second and third films in the franchise could be reimagined in interesting new ways offering new perspectives on those stories. He explained:

"I certainly think that they should reboot [A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors], because 3 has a 'previously on Nightmare on Elm Street' sense to it, and it reunites everybody, and it is the fan favorite. I think if you took a poll or a vote, you'd find out more people like Dream Warriors than any other film. And it's a good script. The original script for that is terrific, and if you look at who wrote it, those people have Oscars now. And then I would love to do a cameo in it, maybe switch genders and play the Priscilla Pointer, Amy Irving's mother's role, the skeptical, cynical therapist who doesn't believe they're all having a common dream, a dream in common, a nightmare, a collective nightmare. I think that would be fun, a nice wink at the audience. It's traditional in a remake to bring somebody back from the original.

"But yeah, it's hard. I mean, I would love to see a sensitive, contemporary director, independent, Spirit Award-winning director or somebody reboot [Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge] and really explore Freddy's manipulation of the boy in that and the boy's burgeoning bisexuality. I think today, we could do that. We could deal with that and what's going on there and play with the psychology of it and Freddy's manipulation of that and really make that heroic. I think that would be interesting to do. I think we're ready for that." 

Englund went on to talk about the new filmmaking technology that could be used today to do things with the franchise that we’ve never seen before, saying:

"To me, Nightmare on Elm Street is one of those films that does, in fact, beg for the new technology. The dreamscape, the landscape of the mind is such a ripe place to go with CGI. I think that that would be fun, so that would require a bigger budget. Not Marvel-level budget or effects, but I think imaginative ... I remember years ago seeing that movie with Robin Williams, What Dreams May Come, the one where the paintings come alive. That effect done today is probably much more enhanced and sophisticated, and I think that would be an interesting effect to use as a segue into a nightmare, into the dream landscape. But I'm no fool. I grew up in Hollywood. They remake everything, and they're going to remake it sooner or later, and I think one of the tricks would be to find one actor that can go the distance, play Freddy over and over again." 

Englund also would like to see the iconography from the film series reimagined in more ambitious ways, and he’d like to see expand on the mythology in unexpected ways. He said:

"All people know about Freddy Krueger is that he's disfigured from burns. He wears a hat. He has a red-and-green sweater on and a claw. That's all they know. They don't really call it a fedora, I don't think. They don't go into great description of the claw, the glove, or the sweater, other than maybe the stripes. So the sweater could be a cardigan. The hat could be an old frayed baseball hat. The claws could have huge blades on them like Wolverine or little tiny sharp nails on them. It could be leather fetish. It could be S&M bondage-ish. We don't know. Freddy could be taller. Freddy could be older. Freddy could be younger. Freddy could be shorter. Freddy could be fat.

“And everybody that has heard the legend, the myth, the story whispered about the locker room or at the sleepover party that hears about this Freddy Krueger who killed children, and 'my mother heard, and she said, and I heard Daddy say, and blah, blah, blah.' Now they've heard about it. Now they're infected, and Freddy's in their subconscious, and when they fall asleep, he can enter them. But they only know those basic facts, so they could imagine a different Freddy. And then we would maybe reveal at the end the uber Freddy that's controlling all of these dreams, but it's their subconscious that manipulates the image of Freddy. So you could have half a dozen Freddys, actors play Freddy, which would be fun, I think."

The Wes Craven Estate is currently in charge of the rights to the Elm Street franchise, but we have no idea what their plans are with them. What would you like to see from the future of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise?