Summary

• Heather Langenkamp is open to reprising her role as Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare on Elm Street, reflecting on her character's evolution.
• Despite franchise reboot not taking off, Langenkamp believes there are still great opportunities for new battles in the Nightmare on Elm Street series.
• With Freddy Krueger's last movie appearance in 2010's reboot, the franchise may struggle without Robert Englund's involvement.

It is almost 40 years since Nancy Thompson squared off with Freddy Krueger for the first time in A Nightmare on Elm Street, and she is more than willing to do it all again. While Robert Englund has almost certainly ruled himself out of returning as the child-killing dream demon, actress Heather Langenkamp is open to reprising her role as Nancy at least one more time if the opportunity arose.

In an interview with the Nightmare on Film Street podcast, Langenkamp reflected on Nancy’s journey in the franchise, and how the role – which she reprised again in Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare – evolved over the course of several decades. She said:

“We get to see and follow her in a really natural way, through being a teenager here and then being a young adult in Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3 and then being a woman and a mother. And it’s very rare to have a character who can span that many different experiences, not only for just a woman, but for a person going through so much experience.”

However, she doesn’t necessarily believe that Nancy’s time battling the eternal evil of Freddy just yet. While the chances of a new Nightmare on Elm Street sequel seem to be a world away with all attempts to reboot the franchise coming to nothing, the actress would love to bring Nancy back to screens again. She said:

“God, yes. I mean, of course. She’s a great character. How could you say no? I just need somebody to get that off the ground. Especially considering Nightmare on Elm Street Part Seven, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. I do think there’s a lot of really great opportunities for new and excellent battles still to come. In my imagination, I have several legacy sequels happening at the same time.”

Is Freddy Dead, or Can the Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise Be Resurrected?

The possibility of a legacy sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street taps into the current appetite for revisiting and expanding franchises that seemed to have run their course two or three decades ago. While there have been several successes, there have also been many misses, with the Halloween franchise managing to straddle both outcomes with David Gordon Green’s divisive trilogy.

While Freddy Krueger’s last movie appearance was in 2010’s attempt to reboot the franchise with Jackie Earle Haley taking over the role from Englund, the movie’s failure both in box office takings and critical response seemed to kill off the dream demon for good. However, Englund has since reprised the role for one-off appearances, such as in the sitcom The Goldbergs. Despite continuing to star in many other projects, including the Netflix series Stranger Things, Englund reiterated last year that his time with the Fedora and glove is done. He previously said:

“I’m too old and thick to play Freddy now. I just can’t do fight scenes for more than one take anymore, I’ve got a bad neck and bad back and arthritis in my right wrist. So I have to hang it up, but I would love to cameo.”

With one of the biggest issues surrounding the 2010 reboot being that Haley’s Freddy was not “the” Freddy, it is hard to see how the franchise can continue without Englund’s involvement anytime soon. That being said, there are plenty who would like to give it a shot, with Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watt, producer Jason Blum, and many others all throwing their hat in the ring to try and take control of one of the most iconic franchises and characters in horror movie history.