First ‘Child’s Play’ TV Series Details Emerge

The Child’s Play franchise is arguably more popular now than ever, with both a reboot film and new TV series on the way, with co-creator Don Mancini developing the latter. While details are still vague about what to expect from the series, Mancini and producer David Kirschner teased that the show aims to bring the franchise back to its roots.

“We deliberately ended Cult [of Chucky] with a bunch of cliffhangers to set up a TV series,” Mancini shared with the audience at Screamfest. “Because there are so many different threads now, television could best accommodate that so that was done intentionally. At the same time, we have a whole new world, a bunch of new characters which we can say nothing about.”

One of the most impressive accomplishments of the Child’s Play franchise is that each installment has been written by Mancini, who also directed the last three films. While some franchises might only tease what future films could potentially explore, the filmmaker intentionally sets up clues that he aims to make good on in future projects.

In the original 1988 film, Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) is critically injured and, before dying, projects his spirit into the body of a Good Guy doll, allowing the pint-sized terror to come to life to fulfill Chucky’s murderous proclivities. In the decades since, Chucky has gone on to possess a human victim, allowing him to escape his plastic body.

With the series taking so many interesting and unexpected diversions, Kirschner teased the series will get back to the basics of the core concept.

“The only thing I think we can say is from the original film that Don wrote, Child’s Play, we are playing with that concept again, the idea of child’s play,” Kirschner admitted. “I’ll let you guys fill in the pieces of that.”

Mancini added, “It involves children.”

After the first three films, the series shifted its focus and abandoned the “Child’s Play” moniker, instead adding “Chucky” into all of its titles. Mancini hopes this pivot to a new medium could similarly reinvigorate the franchise.

“We saw that after seven movies, how can we flip again?” the filmmaker explained of new avenue for the series. “So this time not by merely changing genre but by changing medium. This will give us a different kind of canvas, a much bigger canvas to explore characters and relationships.”

Stay tuned for details on the upcoming Child’s Play TV series.

Are you more excited for the TV series or the planned reboot? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Bloody Disgusting]