Fast and Furious Star Wants to Play Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street Remake

Fast and Furious star Sung Kang reveals that he would be open to playing Freddy Krueger in a reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Fast and Furious star Sung Kang recently revealed that he would jump at the chance to play horror icon Freddy Krueger from the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

Collider recently released an interview with Kang -- who stars as Han Lue in the Fast and Furious franchise -- to promote his feature directorial debut, Shaky Shivers, an upcoming film that pays homage to horror classics like An American Werewolf in London. During the interview, Kang was asked which horror franchise he'd love to join, revealing that A Nightmare on Elm Street would be at the top of the list. "I'd love to play Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street. That character was just so fun," Kang said. "That sweater, to this day, is so iconic, and the knife fingers. That'd be on the bucket list for sure."

Portrayed by Robert Englund, Freddy Krueger first appeared in Wes Craven's 1984 horror classic, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Englund returned as the undead child killer who can murder people through their dreams in the subsequent seven sequels, as well as the television series Freddy's Nightmares. Englund's non-canon appearances as Freddy Krueger include cameos in The Simpsons and The Goldbergs. In the 2010 remake, Freddy Krueger was portrayed by Jackie Earle Haley, who is best known among comic book fans for playing the antihero Rorschach in Zack Snyder's 2009 film adaptation of Watchmen.

Robert Englund Officially Retires as Freddy Krueger

While A Nightmare on Elm Street fans would love to see Englund portray the character again, the actor recently admitted that he is "too old and thick to play Freddy now." He explained that is no longer able to "do fight scenes for more than one take anymore" and that he has "a bad neck and bad back and arthritis in my right wrist. So I have to hang it up." However, he revealed that he "would love to cameo" in the next film whenever it ends up going into production.

Could Kevin Bacon Play Freddy Krueger?

With Englund's tenure as Freddy Krueger over, it remains to be seen who will be cast as his replacement. While Kang has the acting chops to bring justice to the role, Englund has pitched who he would like to see wield the character's trademark metal-clawed, brown leather, right-hand glove next: Footloose and Tremors star Kevin Bacon. "I know he respects the genre, and he’s such a fine physical actor," explained Englund. "I think that in the silences and in the way Kevin moves — it would be interesting." Following Englund's casting comment, Bacon was asked if he would be interested in the role. "Never say never," Bacon said. "I mean, I say, 'Never say never,' but I really do follow that. There's very few things that I go, 'Nah, nah.' You just never know."