Freddy Krueger is comingto Hawkins, Indiana. The team behind the hit Netflix seriesStranger Thingsannounced via Twitter that Robert Englund, the actor who became famous for playing the antagonist in Wes Craven’s classicNightmare on Elm Streetfilm franchise, is joining the show in season 4.
Englund has the recurring role of Victor Creel, a “disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospitalfor a gruesome murderin the 1950s.” So status quo, then.
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Other new actors announced today as regulars inStranger Things 4include Eduardo Franco(Booksmart)as pizza delivery boy and Jonathan’s new best friend Argyle; Jamie Campbell Bower(The Mortal Instruments)as Peter Ballard, an orderly at a psychiatric hospital; and Joseph Quinn(Catherine the Great)as Eddie Munson, a love-him-or-hate-him metalhead who runs the Hellfire Club, Hawkins High’sofficialDungeons & Dragonsgroup, and who plays a central role in season 4’s storyline.
(Between Englund’s character’s name being a beerslam of two major Marvel supervillainsand the Hellfire Club, it looks likeStranger Things 4might be a new high water mark inlow-key Marvel Comics shout-outs.)
Other actors playing recurring roles include Sherman Augustus(Into the Badlands),as Lt. Colonel Sullivan, an “intelligent, no-nonsense man who believes he knows how to stop the evil in Hawkins once and for all,” so he’s going to break into Netflix headquarters and make sure the show doesn’t get renewed; Nikola Djuricko(Genius)as Yuri, an unpredictable Russian smuggler; Mason Dye(The Goldbergs),as Jason Carver, a rich athlete who’s dating the most popular girl in school; and Tom Wlaschiha(Game of Thrones),as Dmitri, a “smart and charming” Russian prison guard.
Very little has officially been announced about the basic premise ofStranger Things 4so far, but showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer have promised it will bethe best and biggest season yet. The season opens with Hopper alive, but imprisoned in Kamchatka, Russia, a snow-covered “wasteland,” while a new mystery unfolds back in Hawkins. “A new horror is beginning to surface,” as per Netflix’s official summary, “something long buried, something that connects everything…”
Englund can currently be seen hostingTrue Terroron the Travel Channel, a six-part series that focuses onreal-life horror stories. He’s also stayed busy with roles in a broad assortment of horror movies, as well as voice acting parts like the Scarecrow in 2017’sInjustice 2.Trivia fans take note: Englund’s last appearance as Freddy Krueger was not 2003’sFreddy vs. Jason,but instead, was in “Mister Knifey-Hands,” a 2018 episode of the ABC sitcomThe Goldbergs.
Stranger Things 4currently has no official release date, thanks toCOVID-19 and related shenanigans. Filming on the show reportedly restarted in early October.
