Chucky isn't playing around anymore. Season 1 saw Jake (Zackary Arthur), his boyfriend Devon (Bjorgvin Arnarson), and best friend Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) derail the pint-sized killer doll's grand plan to invade children's hospitals across the country. When the TV series Chucky returns on Oct. 5, an angry Chucky is on a bender to exact revenge on the trio, as well as his former love, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly).
After an explosive encounter with Chucky, Jake, Devon, and Lexy find themselves shipped off to Incarnate Lord, a Catholic reform school for juvenile offenders. Despite initially struggling to adapt to their environment and move on from all the death and chaos caused by Chucky, it all seems harmless/cultish enough. When a packaged Chucky doll arrives, it quickly becomes clear that even this change of locations may not be able to save them. CBR recently spoke to Chucky creator and showrunner Don Mancini about combining YA and horror, Season 2's multiple Chuckies, and slaying Devon Sawa.
CBR: YA material can be a tough sell, yet Chucky perfectly balances young adult and horror. Why does it work for the series?
Don Mancini: There's a couple of different answers to that question. YA is an inherently good fit for the Chucky franchise because aesthetically and dramatically, we have always been about making everything stylized. One of the things that we found out with the movies over the years is that Chucky himself operates best in a stylized setting, where everything is a little heightened. As I often say, we don't want to go full Tim Burton... and I say that as a huge Tim Burton fan...
We always want to keep one foot on the ground. A lot of what we do with Chucky, we have always done it in the movies, but even more so in the TV show is this tonal balancing act of going from the utter sincerity and naturalistic acting that comes from the sincerity of these teenage kids, and then bridging the gap to the over-the-top campiness of Chucky and Tiffany themselves, and the character we refer to as Nica Chucky. All of that is deliberately at 11. One of the things I love doing is just the challenge of making that mix of tones work.
I think because teenagers' emotions are heightened when you are at that age, it's operatic. That's why I loved Brian De Palma's movies from the '70s, like Carrie and The Fury, because I felt that these stories about telepathy and telekinesis -- and how they are used as metaphors for puberty and unexpressed teenage feelings -- there is something effective about that. I thought the YA was constantly a good fit for Chucky. We also have a number of very talented young writers working on the show. They help me a lot, writing believable young people. At my age, I am further away from that. My method is just writing people. I don't write down to them. I don't write kids particularly differently.
At the beginning of Season 1, our young heroes didn't know who Chucky was. They were in for a very rude awakening. Now that they know this evil firsthand, how better equipped are they when he shows up on their doorstep?
Presumably better equipped than they were when they were completely innocent of what he was up to. They know to be on the defensive and on the lookout and be ready for attack, particularly once they are locked up in a Catholic school. As you'll see, that readiness comes into play. It can only serve them so well and take them so far this season because there are a lot of different Chuckies... and they all have different agendas and personalities. You may have certain expectations of what is going to happen when Chucky shows up at your doorstep, but you might be mistaken because Chucky is complicated -- now more than ever.
Last season, you killed off actor Devon Sawa, who played twin brothers, twice. He's back as a new character. Chances are he won't survive this encounter with Chucky, either. What's fun about bumping him off?
I have the pleasure of working with Devon Sawa. That's the main thing in terms of bringing him back. In terms of his fate, or what you might anticipate to be his fate, a lot of that is driven by Chucky himself. Those guys hate each other. It's a pretty toxic relationship, but Chucky is the boss. We all work for him, and sometimes it's like, "Devon Sawa is going down."
Chucky returns on Oct. 5 on Syfy.