Chucky Star Jennifer Tilly Joining the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Jennifer Tilly, the Oscar-nominated star of Chucky, is set to join the cast of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Joking that the show is scarier than her horror movie experiences, Tilly revealed in a recent interview that she will board season 14 as a new cast member — not a housewife herself but a “friend of the Housewives” — akin to a recurring guest star role on a traditional scripted TV show. That role gives her the ability to step away and film other things, while also giving the new season a shot in the arm, as Real Housewives of Beverly Hills‘s 13th season was a bit of a mess, with audiences turned off and some cast members bailing on the aging franchise.

Real Housewives of New York got a full-on reboot, but the other coast isn’t going that far yet. Tilly, though, is apparently part of a plan to revive the show’s fortunes.

“Oh my god. It’s insane,” Tilly told the It Happed in Hollywood podcast. “It’s, like, scarier than Chucky. I’ll tell you that.”

“I’m not a housewife. I’m a friend, though, which is a lot easier,” Tilly added. “You just dip in and out. You try to avoid, like, flying shrapnel and you know? If drinks are thrown, I have good reflexes.”

CinemaBlend notes that Tilly has already appeared in a handful of episodes, showing up to support her real-life friend and cast member Sutton Stracke. Stracke had a medical emergency and was removed from the reunion at the end of season 13, before a planned conversation with departing cast member Kathy Hilton, who will apparently be back this season…also as a friend, not a full time cast member.

Tilly joined the Child’s Play franchise with 1998’s Bride of Chucky, and has been a fixture in the franchise ever since, disappearing for the reboot and first season of Chucky, but returning to reprise her role as Tiffany in the second season. An “unplanned pregnancy” between Chucky and Tiffany was teed up at the end of Bride of Chucky, leading directly to 2005’s Seed of Chucky and much later to the second season of the Chucky TV series, in which Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star Lachlan Watson provided the voices for their kids, Glen and Glenda.

Both Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and the first three seasons of Chucky are available to stream on Peacock. There’s no word yet on whether Chucky will be back for a season four.