Future Chucky Movie Will Connect To The Series, Says Don Mancini

Summary

• Chucky
  creator Don Mancini hopes the show will work in tandem with the new
  Child’s Play
  movie that he is developing.
• Mancini also reveals that he has pitched season 4 of the show, which has not yet been greenlit.
• The
  Chucky
  show could be making an unprecedented move by connecting directly to a new
  Child’s Play
  movie.

Don Mancini reveals how the new Child’s Play movie will interrelate with the show Chucky. Mancini is the creator of the iconic killer doll, having written the original script for the first movie in the franchise and penned the scripts for the remainder in addition to directing three of the seven movies in the original continuity and creating the show, which returns to Syfy and USA Network this April. Recently, he teased that he was working on a new movie in the franchise, though he didn’t share further details about the project at that time.

Screen Rant recently had the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with Mancini. During the conversation, the topic turned to the new Child’s Play movie that he has in development. The filmmaker revealed that he hopes that the sequel will work “in tandem” with Chucky season 4, which has not yet been greenlit but which he recently pitched to the network. He said that “our dream of conquering the universe” would be that “we can keep expanding the Chucky-verse in this way.” Read his full quote below:

[The show and the movie working] in tandem is my hope. We’re hoping to get a season 4 of the show. Fingers crossed. I pitched the idea already to the network, so we’re hoping on that, but I’m also in the early stages of developing a new movie now, and the movie is designed to work in tandem with the show. That’s what we hope in our dream of conquering the universe, is that we can keep expanding the Chucky-verse in this way. That’s my hope so we’ll see what happens.

The Chucky Franchise Could Be Making An Unprecedented Move

The Child’s Play Continuity Is One Of Horror’s Most Impressive Feats

It is already more or less unprecedented that Chucky connects directly with the Child’s Play movies, with legacy characters returning to carry out continuing storylines. Many horror movies have been adapted to television shows, including prequels like Bates Motel, de facto reboots like Hannibal, and unrelated stories set in the same universe like Scream: The TV Series. Legacy stars have even occasionally returned in some shows reprising their original roles, like Bruce Campbell in Ash vs. Evil Dead. However, crossing back over to the realm of movies with the same characters and storylines is an ambitious goal.

Legacy characters that have made recurring appearances on
Chucky
include Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly), Glen/Glenda (Lachlan Watson and Billy Boyd), Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif), Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent), Kyle (Christine Elise), and Chucky himself (Brad Dourif).

It is not entirely unusual for a horror franchise that made a detour to television to return to the big screen. This has already happened with The Exorcist, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Purge, and Scream. The Evil Dead has also done so, which brings it the closest to the feat that the Child’s Play franchise is attempting with overlapping storylines that could potentially feature the full Chucky cast, but there are no overlapping characters between the legacy sequel show and the 2023 movie Evil Dead Rise.

Should Mancini accomplish his goal of having Chucky and a new Child’s Play movie work in tandem, the results would be entirely unpredictable. Because of its nature as a slasher series, certain characters will likely die, forcing in the continuity between the two entirely different formats to be as strict as the franchise has ever been up to this point. Mancini has shown a constant willingness to experiment with the franchise and push the envelope, but this achievement will rival his highest heights if he is able to pull it off.

Chucky

season 3 part 2 premieres on USA Network and Syfy on April 10.