Guillermo del Toro Recalls Being Offered Seed of Chucky and The Fly Sequel

Thanks to films like Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak, and The Shape of Water, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is renowned for his inventive imagination and original creations, but when he was getting started in Hollywood, a number of sequels were offered to him, with the director recently recalling how he was offered the Child’s Play sequel Seed of Chucky as well as a sequel to The Fly. While the filmmaker sounded relieved to have avoided jumping into those franchises, he isn’t entirely opposed to adapting someone else’s creations, as his Hellboy films, inspired by Mike Mignola’s comics, and his Blade II are some of his most beloved films among fans.

“I’ve been offered, from the largest superhero franchise to the Seed of Chucky,” del Toro shared with IndieWire. “I’ll tell you one of the worst pitch meetings I’ve ever had. It was for The Fly II. And it was super early in my career, it was ’92 or something like that. I get in and I sit down and they say, ‘What do you think about The Fly II?’ and I said, ‘I think you shouldn’t make it.’ And they said, ‘Why?’ and I said, ‘Because the first one was so great.’ And that was it. They validated my parking.”

Interestingly, The Fly II debuted in 1989, so it’s possible that del Toro was actually referring to a third film in the series, as he had only directed shorts around the time he potentially would have been approached to direct a sequel to David Cronenberg’s 1986 film.

The filmmaker noted how his major motivation for taking on any project, regardless of the genre, is how much it appeals to him personally and how much passion he has for it.

“I know one thing: from the beginning of my work, I know that I will only take movies that I’m willing to die on the set for,” del Toro pointed out. “I take them very seriously. Doesn’t matter if it’s a giant robot or an action movie. There’s a reason for me to take it, a personal reason. Nobody has to agree. I’m not running for office. I just go at it and I say, ‘This is what I want, this is what I got,’ and that’s when I say a movie is successful or not. Did it achieve what I wanted?”

Del Toro currently has two projects in the works, an adaptation of the novel Nightmare Alley and also a new take on Pinocchio.

Would you have liked to see del Toro tackle these projects? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!