Freddy Krueger is set to make his return to theaters. Paramount Pictures has closed a deal with the estate of the late Wes Craven to develop a new film based on his original 1984 screenplay for A Nightmare on Elm Street, marking the horror icon’s first new movie in sixteen years, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Freddy Finds a New Home at Paramount Primal
The project will be developed under Paramount Primal, the studio’s newly named genre label run by producers J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules. The pair, previously behind hits like Weapons, Barbarian, Companion, and Friendship under their Boulderlight banner, left Warner Bros. for Paramount in September 2025 to build out the label, which is aimed at producing smartly budgeted films across horror, comedy, action, and science fiction, according to Variety. Lifshitz and Margules will executive produce the new Elm Street film.
How the Craven Estate Got the Rights Back
The deal licenses U.S. rights to Craven’s original screenplay from his widow, Iya Labunka, and son, Jonathan Craven, who will produce alongside Marc Toberoff, a copyright attorney who has built a niche practice helping filmmaker estates reclaim ownership of their work. Toberoff previously helped the Craven estate regain the screenplay’s rights in 2019 under U.S. copyright law, which allows original authors or their heirs to reclaim rights 35 years after a work’s publication. He used the same legal strategy to help screenwriter Victor Miller’s estate reclaim the rights to the original Friday the 13th, per Deadline.
What the Deal Actually Covers
Because Paramount has only licensed the rights to Craven’s original 1984 screenplay, the new film is legally barred from drawing on anything introduced in the franchise’s seven sequels or its 2010 remake, according to Nerdist. New Line Cinema, which released the original film and all of its follow-ups, retains both the international rights to the franchise and full ownership of the sequels. Paramount has described the new project only as being set in the world of A Nightmare on Elm Street and based on the original screenplay, with no title, plot details, or cast attached yet.
A Deal That Lands Amid a Bigger Merger
The timing has raised eyebrows, given that Paramount is currently working to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, New Line’s corporate parent. Sources close to the deal maintain that the rights agreement is unrelated to the pending merger, but the overlap hasn’t gone unnoticed, since a completed merger would eventually put both the original Elm Street franchise and this new film under one roof again, according to TheWrap.
Where Robert Englund Fits In
Notably absent from the announcement is any mention of Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger across all eight of New Line’s original films and has said in the past that he’s retired from the role. Whether he’ll have any involvement in Paramount’s new take remains an open question, and one several outlets have flagged as fans’ biggest concern following the announcement, per Gizmodo.
A Franchise That’s Been Asleep for Years
Craven’s original film was made for just $1.1 million and grossed $57 million, launching a franchise that would go on to define New Line Cinema, earning the studio its nickname,“the house that Freddy built.”The franchise went on to produce six sequels and later crossed over with Friday the 13th in Freddy vs. Jason. and a 2010 reboot starring Jackie Earle Haley that underperformed critically despite solid box office returns, effectively putting the franchise on ice for over a decade. Estate co-producer Iya Labunka said in a statement that she and Jonathan Craven were looking forward to introducing the world of A Nightmare on Elm Street to a new generation of fans, according to Dread Central.
