There’s only one name that was ever legitimately rumored to be up for the role of Freddy Krueger in the new Platinum Dunes reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and that name is Jackie Earle Haley. Haley was first rumored to be up for the part by Latino Review back in February, and now, after Bloody-Disgusting received the exclusive that he was officially in-talks for the role, it’s been confirmed that Haley will indeed play Freddy Krueger.

Jackie Earle Haley has been around since the ’70s where he appeared in The Bad News Bears, but after that he disappeared for a long, long time. He stormed back into sight with his Academy Award nominated performance as a pedophile (practicing for Freddy?) in Little Children. Most recently he was the man that brought the iconic Rorschach to life in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen.

With filming for the Wesley Strick scripted A Nightmare on Elm Street set to start filming next month in Chicago, the deal almost didn’t get done as Haley is currently working on the TV show Human Target. Thankfully, schedules were looked at and adjusted to make it all work out.

Click over to the other side for more, as well as a video of Jackie Earle Haley responding to questions about playing Freddy while he was doing press for Watchmen.

Director Samuel Bayer had this to say about Haley as the Freddy Krueger he refers to as “Nosferatu meets Ed Gein”:

Bloody-Disgusting continued their day of exclusives with the announcement that Kyle Gallner (A Haunting in Connecticut) is also in final discussions to play Quentin in the new Nightmare on Elm Street. This would be the role associated with Johnny Depp’s role in the original.

As promised, here’s a video from IGN asking Haley about the possibility of playing the part. You get the feeling he may have known something that we did not at that point.

[Source: Risky Biz Blog]