Nightmare 3 Director Endorses Jim Carrey as Freddy Krueger — and It Might Just Work

Freddy Krueger is stuck in the same place as a lot of boogeymen these days: limbo. The A Nightmare on Elm Street rights sit with Wes Craven's estate, which means no one really knows what the next move is. And with Robert Englund basically bowing out - he has said he's an old dog for the role now - the obvious question is who could even pull off Freddy anymore.

Chuck Russell has a curveball: Jim Carrey

Chuck Russell, who directed Nightmare 3: Dream Warriors, floated a name I did not have on my casting bingo card: Jim Carrey. Yes, that Jim Carrey. Not exactly the first guy you think of for horror - if you remember The Number 23, you probably still wince - but Russell laid out a specific case in an interview with Dread Central.

"Jim, in my opinion, could almost do anything if he put his heart into it. 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."

Could that actually work?

Look, I have a lot of respect for Carrey's comedy run (the 90s were a machine), and when he commits to something, he really commits. But Freddy? That's a wild swing. And based on his last few years, he seems more into painting and popping back in as Dr. Robotnik than diving into a gnarly horror icon. If the dream is "Jim Carrey as a scarred maniac," there is a simpler route: someone, somewhere, finally make that Fire Marshall Bill movie.

Other names in the mix, and the baggage

Robert Englund himself has said he could see Kevin Bacon in the hat and sweater. Bacon loves the genre, has done plenty of it, and he even popped up in 1980's Friday the 13th, long before Elm Street existed. Whoever ends up wearing the glove - if anyone does - is walking into a pressure cooker. The 2010 reboot with Jackie Earle Haley never caught on, and the franchise has been idling ever since.

Where things stand right now

• The Elm Street rights are currently with Wes Craven's estate, so the franchise's future is up in the air.
• Robert Englund has basically aged out of playing Freddy again and has said as much.
• Dream Warriors director Chuck Russell thinks Jim Carrey could do it, but only with a bold, New Nightmare-style reinvention.
• Englund has previously given his blessing to Kevin Bacon as a potential successor.

Would Jim Carrey as Freddy have ever worked? With the right reset, maybe. Without one, probably not. If the estate ever kicks the doors open again, the real move might be less about the actor and more about the angle. Give me a sharp new take, and then we can argue about the glove size.