Freddy Krueger is coming to Hawkins, Indiana. The team behind the hit Netflix series Stranger Things announced via Twitter that Robert Englund, the actor who became famous for playing the antagonist in Wes Craven's classic Nightmare on Elm Street film 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 hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s." So status quo, then.
Other new actors announced today as regulars in Stranger Things 4 include 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's official Dungeons & Dragons group, and who plays a central role in season 4's storyline.
(Between Englund's character's name being a beerslam of two major Marvel supervillains and the Hellfire Club, it looks like Stranger Things 4 might be a new high water mark in low-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 of Stranger Things 4 so far, but showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer have promised it will be the 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 hosting True Terror on the Travel Channel, a six-part series that focuses on real-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's Injustice 2. Trivia fans take note: Englund's last appearance as Freddy Krueger was not 2003's Freddy vs. Jason, but instead, was in "Mister Knifey-Hands," a 2018 episode of the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs.
Stranger Things 4 currently has no official release date, thanks to COVID-19 and related shenanigans. Filming on the show reportedly restarted in early October.
Source: Stranger Things/Twitter