Nightmare on Elm Street Director Wants Jim Carrey As the Next Freddy Krueger

There is only one Freddy Krueger, and that’s Robert Englund. Sure, Jackie Earle Haley stepped in as the Dream Master for the much-derided 2010 remake, but that couldn’t shake loose Englund’s claim as the killer from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Yet, not even Freddy can defeat time, and at 78 years old, Englund’s ready to pass his knife glove onto someone else.

If director Chuck Russell has his way, that glove would pass to none other than Jim Carrey. “Jim, in my opinion, could almost do anything if he put his heart into it,” Russell said on Dread Central’s Development Hell podcast.

Surprising as the casting idea may be, Russell does know what he’s talking about. After all, he directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors, widely considered the best of the movies not directed by original creator Wes Craven. One might even argue that Russell oversaw the first movie with the Freddy who became a pop culture icon. Where A Nightmare on Elm Street and the first sequel Freddy’s Revenge imagined Krueger as a more stoic and menacing killer, The Dream Warriors really leaned into his quips and elaborately ironic kill sequences.

Russell also knows a lot about Carrey as an actor, having worked with him in 1993’s The Mask. Interestingly, The Mask changed from a darker horror story, as it was originally conceived in the pages of Dark Horse Comics, to the more comedic film we know today, precisely because of Carrey’s involvement. Since that early breakout year, Carrey has shown far more range than audiences initially expected.

That said, while Carrey has been great in The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he still hasn’t proven himself in horror. Despite its vampire plot, Once Bitten is a comedy and the thrillers The Number 23 and Dark Crimes are low points in his filmography.

Yet, Russell is convinced that the actor can pull off the part of Freddy, provided the project meets his standards. “For Jim to do it, we’d have to do something that was another leap in the Elm Street series — a little bit like what Wes did with his very meta New Nightmare. I think Jim would only consider it, and I’d only consider harnessing Jim, if there was a bold new direction for Elm Street,” he mused.

Of course, Russell’s not opposed to bringing back other familiar faces, were he to get another crack at the franchise. “I’d love to do another Elm Street if there was the full support of everybody,” he admitted, pointing out that the star of his film Patricia Arquette “has said she’d like to do it again in the press.” In fact, even while musing about the possibilities of returning to the franchise and of bringing on Jim Carrey, even Russell couldn’t forget about Englund.

“Were I to be involved in a new Elm Street, A, I’d be delighted, and B, my first goal would be to get Robert involved,” he declared. “I still think Robert, for me, is the only Freddy.” It’s hard to disagree.