Nope. He always had him as a pedo and a killer. Then during pre production, that news story about the kids being molested hit and he toned it down but it was always implied. It’s still there.
This is from wiki:
Wes Craven said his inspiration for the basis of Freddy Krueger's power stemmed from several stories in the
Los Angeles Times about a series of mysterious deaths: All the victims had reported recurring nightmares and died in their sleep.
[13]Additionally, Craven's original script characterized Freddy as a
child molester, which Craven said was the "worst thing" he could think of. The decision was made to instead make him a child murderer in order to avoid being accused of exploiting the spate of
highly publicized child molestation cases in
California around the time A Nightmare on Elm Street went into production.
[14]
That's twisted.. all types of nope.
thinking about it.
