‘Chucky’ TV Series Will Blend the Horror of Original Film While Expanding the Ever-Changing ‘Child’s Play’ Saga

Child’s Play is a very fluid franchise, and that might be the key to its longevity. While other horror franchises have died off, Child’s Play is still going strong, even in the wake of an unnecessary remake. Don Mancini, who has been behind the series since the beginning, is now bringing the story of the killer Good Guy doll to TV with the Chucky TV series. The series remains shrouded in secrecy, but in a new interview, Mancini promises that the show will combine the more straightforward horror elements of the first film while also honoring the ever-changing tone of the sequels.

People often seem surprised when I tell them this, but my all-time-favorite horror franchise is the Child’s Play/Chucky series. I can’t even fully explain it – there’s just something special about this series to me, and I love almost every film that’s been released so far (I even thought the needless remake was okay, and not a total abomination as I feared it would be). What’s made the Chucky series so memorable is the way it’s adapted over the years. The first film was going for a traditional horror vibe. But as the sequels kept coming, Child’s Play morphed into something more comedic and ironic – before slowly going back to regular horror again.

And what of the Chucky TV series destined for Syfy? What tone will that be going for? According to Don Mancini, the show will attempt to remain true to every film in the franchise. “One of the things that we’ve always tried to do over the course of the decades and the different movies, is we just try to switch it up a lot,” Mancini told Syfy. “From film to film, I’ve always tried to create a different tone, plug Chucky into a different subgenre. We’ve gone from straightforward slasher to comedy to crazy satirical comedy and back to straightforward horror again.”

Mancini went on to say:

“With this TV show, our mission has been to preserve the straightforward scariness of the original film or the first couple of films. But at the same time, continue on with this ever-expanding tapestry of consistent story that we’ve spun over the course of seven movies and 30-some years. I think fans are really gonna love to see the new characters that we introduce into this realm and just to see how they came off of our classic characters. Not just Chucky, but some of the others that you may be hoping to see. There’s a good chance they may turn up.”

In Chucky, “after a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begin to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets. Meanwhile, the arrival of enemies and allies from Chucky’s past threatens to expose the truth behind the killings, as well as the demon doll’s untold origins as a seemingly ordinary child who somehow became this notorious monster.”

The series is expected to debut sometime this year.