Robert Englund Returns to ‘Stranger Things’ for Animated Spin-Off in New Rol

March 26, 2026

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From the debut episode and up through the series finale, Stranger Things regularly paid respects to seminal works of horror. Whether this means it borrowed thematic elements, like Eleven’s mental powers mirroring Carrie and Firestarter, or if it meant acknowledging points of pop culture, like a bedroom The Evil Dead poster or teens going to see Day of the Dead, horror masterpieces permeated the Duffer Brothers’ series. These tributes to titans of horror came to a head in Season 4 of the series, when a genre legend arrived to bring an all-new figure to life.

In Stranger Things, a variety of creatures existed in the Upside Down, yet our heroes often wondered about the source of these creations. Season 4 confirmed that it was the nefarious “Vecna” who was the root of all of these evils, who was born Henry Creel. One episode caught up with Henry’s father, Victor Creel, who was played by A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Robert Englund. The first spin-off from the core series, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, will see Englund returning to the franchise, though this time to voice a character known as Cosmo. No details about the character have been revealed, other than his name.

Making the upcoming spin-off’s tribute to Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street all the more exciting is that, in the latest trailer for the series, there’s a Freddy Krueger Easter egg, as seen in the photo below.

A scene from ‘Stranger Things: Tales From 85’ that features a Freddy Krueger Easter egg

Netflix

The above sequence from the latest trailer unfolds when Nikki Baxter (Odessa A’zion) is attacked by creatures from the Upside Down, with our familiar Hawkins, Indiana teens helping protect her. After this encounter, Nikki invites the crew to her garage to stock up on weapons. Nikki seems to love horror movies as much as the rest of the team, as she has a cardboard cutout of Krueger in the background.

Englund debuted as Krueger in the original 1984 Nightmare on Elm Street, and reprised his role in six sequels and in the Freddy vs. Jason crossover. When the movie got a reboot in 2010, Jackie Earle Haley took over the role. Unlike other horror mascots like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, or Ghostface, Freddy never hid behind a mask, making Englund’s contributions to the character’s defining traits. And, with the ’80s of it all, Englund regularly made appearances on talk shows and other public events as his alter ego.

It’s been more than two decades since Englund played Krueger in a movie, but what makes his voice work in Tales from ’85 interesting is the fact that the actor has often expressed his interest in voicing his villain in an animated project. The physical toll a live-action outing would take on the actor isn’t something he’s interested in, yet he has noted his voice is something he could contribute for years to come.

If Englund’s Cosmo feels at all connected to Krueger, or to Victor Creel, is something we won’t know about until Tales from ’85 premieres in April.