Age is one of the inevitable things about time that continues to have a stranglehold on each of us. No matter what we do, it is always ticking down to the end. As years and decades pass, some of our beloved characters are held to the same time constraints due to the actors and actresses that portray them. What will happen when the day comes that Robert Downey Jr. can no longer play Tony Stark for Marvel? It is a hard pill to swallow.
Today, another beloved horror character might have to begin facing this scenario. Robert Englund shocked fans when he announced that he is too old to play horror icon Freddy Krueger any longer. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Englund says that his age will not allow him to play the iconic Freddy Krueger again:
I’m too old to do another Freddy now. 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. I can still be mean and scary, but I’m mostly relegated now to sort of Van Helsing roles, old doctors and s––. So it’s fun that the last moment of me ever playing Freddy is a wink to the audience.
It will be a hole left in Hollywood, which will be felt by horror fans everywhere. Replacing the actor behind famous characters is always a tricky situation. There is always the chance that fans of the franchise won’t take well to the new actor’s portrayal of the character.
Freddy Krueger is a horror character that I grew up with, and one that holds a dear place in my heart. Robert Englund is an actor that haunted my dreams throughout most of my childhood. The sheer concept of A Nightmare on Elm Street is a haunting trip into the darker parts of one’s imagination. What would you do if you couldn’t sleep for fear of being killed in your dreams?
