Chucky has starred in seven movies, not counting the 2019 remake. There were three Child’s Plays, then Bride of, Seed of, Curse of and Cult of Chucky. The killer doll will return in a cable TV series in 2021. The creator of the horror franchise and screenwriter of all seven films, Don Mancini, is running the show with Channel Zero creator Nick Antosca.
Mancini and Antosca were on a San Diego Comic-Con@Home panel of horror showrunners on July 25. During the conversation, Mancini described how Chucky would be different on television, but promised TV wouldn’t clean up his mouth. Chucky will air on both Syfy and USA in 2021.
A TV series can get more into Chucky’s character than the movies could
Each Chucky movie was about 90 minutes long. Certainly, the continuing story of Chucky over 30 years has deepened his character, but Mancini looks forward to having several episodes in a single season to explore.
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“There’s more opportunity to create that kind of dread and suspense than we did in the movies,” Mancini said. “For me, the biggest opportunity that I saw in taking our franchise from film into TV was to really make it more of a story about character than it had ever been before, including Chucky’s character by the way.”
Chucky will scare you differently on TV
The first five Chucky movies played in theaters. Curse and Cult premiered on home video but still followed a film aesthetic. The series will be designed for a smaller screen, so that will include some changes. Even moderator Tananarive Due suggested people would watch the show on their cell phones.
“The difference between Chucky scaring people on the big screen where he can loom large, looming high above the theatergoers, now as you say, people are going to be watching it on their phones,” Mancini said. “Fundamentally, this is simplistic, but it almost comes down to more closeups. More closeups and less wide shots is really part of your marching orders. But, Chucky’s handsome so he can take it.”
TV won’t change this
All of the Chucky movies were rated R, and Chucky would swear it up with the voice of Brad Dourif, who is returning to voice the doll. Mancini confirmed he could still swear on Syfy and USA, as previous shows like Mr. Robot managed to do.
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“When Nick and I set up Chucky at Syfy, one of our first things we had to make sure of is that Chucky could drop his F-bombs because it’s such an intrinsic part of his character, it would just seem wrong if he couldn’t,” Mancini said. “Fortunately,…
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