Friday the 13th legend Kane Hodder nearly played Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare On Elm Street

Friday the 13th franchise star Kane Hodder almost landed the role of Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare On Elm Street.

The 70-year-old actor was the man behind the hockey mask playing killer Jason Voorhees in four films; Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday and Jason X.

Now, Hodder has revealed he came very close to portraying fellow slasher movie icon Freddy after working with A Nightmare On Elm Street director Wes Craven on his 1985 horror film The Hills Have Eyes Part II.

When he started his Hollywood career as a stuntman, Hodder was left with burns all over his body after a stunt demonstration went wrong and during a conversation with Craven on set, the late filmmaker told Kane that he was creating a supernatural character that had burns all over his body for which he could be perfect for.

However, Craven - who died of a brain tumour at his home in Los Angeles on August 30, 2015, aged 76 - d3ecided to use prosthetics and make-up for Freddy on-screen and Hodder ultimately lost out on the part to Robert Englund.

Appearing on the Talks From the Crypt podcast, Hodder said: "I was talking to Wes on the set one day, and he said he was developing a new character that was going to make a franchise. And he says, 'This is a character that's been burned, and I'm thinking about using an actor with real burn scars.' Which I have. And he briefly mentioned it to me on the set. He said, 'I think I'm going to call him Fred Krueger.' And then, of course, he decided to go in a different direction and do prosthetics. Because my face is not scarred, which is the whole point of Freddy. His face is all scars."

Hodder - who did wear Krueger's glove of finger knives for a scene at the end of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday - is full of praise for Englund's portrayal of Freddy and doesn't believe he would have played the child killer character as well as the V star.

He added: "I don't think I would've done it as well as Robert. I would've tended to make the character less comical. But I don't know if that would've been the right choice. Because that's kind of the popularity with Freddy; he's a smartass, and violent, and you know. I don't think it would've been as good as the way Robert did it."

Hodder has had a legendary career in the horror genre having also played Victor Crowley in the Hatchet series, as well as doing stunts as Leatherface in Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and motion capture in the video game The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.