Given Chucky’s diminutive size, it seems appropriate that the killer doll and big-screen horror icon has now made his way to the small screen and EW can exclusively reveal that Chucky will premiere Oct. 12 at 10 p.m. on USA and SYFY.
In the show, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos after a vintage ‘Good Guy’ doll turns up at a suburban yard sale. Soon, everyone must grapple with a series of horrifying murders that begin to expose the town’s deep hypocrisies and hidden secrets. Meanwhile, friends and foes from Chucky’s past creep back into his world and threaten to expose the truth behind his mysterious origins as a seemingly ordinary child who somehow became this notorious monster.
SyFy Chucky from the ‘Chucky’ TV show
The show stars Zackary Arthur (Transparent) and its showrunner is franchise creator Don Mancini, who co-wrote the original film in the movie series, 1988’s Child’s Play, and wrote and directed several of the sequels, including 2017’s Cult of Chucky.
“The main character is a 14-year-old gay boy who’s bullied and sort of lost after the recent death of his mother,” says Mancini. “He’s a young artist [making] sculptures with doll parts. He finds Chucky at a yard sale and buys him, but it turns out that he gets much more than he bargained for.” Arthur is joined on the show by young actors Teo Briones, Alyvia Alyn Lind, and Björgvin Arnarson. “One of the things I wanted to do was bring [the franchise] back to its Child’s Play roots and have the protagonists [be] kids. But since, with the first couple of movies, we’d already delved into having little kids I wanted to explore something different, so this time we’re exploring young teenagers.”
The cast of Chucky also includes Arthur’s fellow franchise newbies Lexa Doig (Jason X) and Devon Sawa (Final Destination) as well as returning fan favorites Jennifer Tilly, Fiona Dourif, Alex Vincent, Christine Elise, and Brad Dourif, who once again voices the titular maniac.
“One of the things that we pride ourselves on, and I think makes our franchise singular, is that we have spun a relatively consistent and coherent narrative over the course of 33 years and seven films and now eight episodes of television,” says Mancini. “I think that’s one of the things that our fans like about the Chucky franchise. I deliberately ended Cult of Chucky on a series of cliffhangers, major cliffhangers, because I knew a TV series would be the ideal place to accommodate delving into the ramifications. So we begin the series introducing our new story, our new milieu, and then we start to bring the veteran characters into the story, and it all comes together for a big showdown.”
Another element of the TV show which pays homage to the franchise’s past? The Chucky doll seen in the series is deliberately modeled on the version seen in 1990’s Child’s Play 2.
“Over the years, I’ve heard that the consensus fan favorite among all the movies is Child’s Play 2,” says Mancini. “I think one of the reasons for that is how Chucky looked in that movie and how the late director John Lafia, who passed away last year, shot Chucky. Our goal with the series was to bring Chucky’s look precisely back to that. Tony Gardner and Peter Chevako (special effects artists responsible for creating the show’s puppets) have done a great job. I think fans are really going to love that.”
If Chucky proves a success, Mancini hopes to make further seasons of the show and is also determined his pint-sized psychopath will star in more movies.
“We have plans to do that, whether in lieu of additional seasons of the series, or in tandem with [them], potentially,” he says. “We’re creating a broader Chucky universe with the TV series that now could span over different media.”
Chucky is produced by UCP and executive produced by Mancini, David Kirschner, Nick Antosca, and Alex Hedlund. Harley Peyton is also serving as executive producer.
Exclusively see a first look image of Chucky in the Chucky TV show above and watch a teaser for the series below.
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