Chucky’s Don Mancini on Why Horror’s Creepiest Doll Keeps Coming Back

Chucky might be again for extra butchery and wisecracks—a second season of the hit SYFY and USA Network horror collection starring the killer doll from the Child’s Play motion pictures was introduced this week. The finale of season one simply aired, so there gained’t be new episodes for awhile, however that didn’t cease us from hopping on the cellphone with Chucky creator Don Mancini to study extra.

What follows is a frivolously edited and condensed model of our dialog.

Cheryl Eddy, io9: When did you discover out you had been getting a season two, and did that have an effect on the ending of season one in any respect?

Don Mancini: Just a few weeks in the past—proper across the time it was introduced—is after we knew. I had discovered from working with Bryan Fuller on Hannibal and Nick Antosca on Channel Zero that you simply wish to assemble one thing that’s going to be satisfying as its personal entity, within the occasion you don’t get one other season—however on the identical time, might perform as one thing the place you’re planting the seeds for season two. Ideally you wish to do each concurrently. So that was our objective. That’s all. We needed it to work each methods simply in case, as a result of you’ll be able to’t take something as a right.

io9: What’s subsequent for Chucky? Will we be seeing Glenda or Glen or every other fan-favorite characters? I assume what I’m asking is, what are you able to reveal about season two?

Mancini: I’m engaged on the script for episode one in the intervening time. But , there’s a [story] bible, and I simply pitched the season to the studio and the community, and I feel we’re all enthusiastic about the place we’re going. But I can’t say an excessive amount of about it apart from to remain tuned—and numerous the characters that followers love and wish to see once more, you simply may see them.

io9: Will the characters that had been new in Chucky (and managed to outlive the season) be part of season two?

Mancini: That’s additionally a matter of about which I’ve been instructed to say… keep tuned for! I imply, it’s tv. We wish to have enjoyable with it. We need individuals to anticipate and surprise and voice what they need. That’s a part of the enjoyable of the storytelling course of with the viewers, and that’s one of many issues I like about TV versus motion pictures the place it’s sort of taking place in actual time. You have this dialogue occurring with the viewers and the followers, and I actually take pleasure in that. It’s actually enjoyable. But that is a part of it: that sort of suspense and anticipation of questioning what’s going to return by means of.

io9: Speaking of the followers, what sort of suggestions did you get from Chucky followers about season one, and what’s your relationship like with them?

Mancini: Well, , I pay attention and I monitor stuff. One of the issues that I needed to do with the collection was deliver the tone of the entire thing again into one thing that was approximate to Child’s Play 2, as a result of I do know that’s principally everybody’s favourite film of the franchise. And I get that—I like that film, too. So I needed to do this, and associated to that, we tried to make [Chucky’s look] equivalent to [his look in] Child’s Play 2 as a result of I knew that’s what the followers needed. So I hearken to all of this, and I give it some thought, and I take it into consideration. But on the identical time, a part of the enjoyable of it’s subverting these expectations. It’s not nearly, like, giving everybody what they need—in fact, that wouldn’t even be doable—however I’m simply at all times to listen to what they like and characters that they like and what they like about these characters, as a result of I’m a fan of it, too. I’m a fan of different cultural artifacts as nicely. And so I understand how it really works; it’s enjoyable to take part in.

io9: Have you gotten any reactions from Hackensack, New Jersey, the place the present takes place?

Mancini: Actually, I haven’t! But I’m tremendous as a result of I puzzled, ? Maybe they’re simply too busy. Maybe they’re oblivious. I really feel like sooner or later over the past eight weeks because the present was airing, I did Google Hackensack simply to see, however I didn’t come throughout something. I feel the Hackensack that we depict is sort of attention-grabbing—and, in fact, it’s a Hackensack of the thoughts. No relationship in anyway to the actual Hackensack, New Jersey apart from its, , bodily location and its very existence.

io9: It’s virtually a personality in season one.

Mancini: Hackensack for me, I established that in Bride of Chucky as a result of I wanted a spot for the characters to go—they wanted to have a vacation spot for his or her highway journey. And I just like the phrase “Hackensack” as a result of it simply phonetically appears like a spot the place a serial killer can be from, as a result of it’s hack and sack—it simply sounds violent. It appears like stabbing! But past that, I used to be an enormous fan of Richard Donner’s Superman, the place in fact Eve Teschmacher’s mom is from Hackensack [Laughs]. When Lex Luthor sends the 2 missiles flying, considered one of them goes to the San Andreas fault, and Superman can solely cease one. And then the opposite one’s going to Hackensack, New Jersey and Miss Teschmacher says, “But Lex, my mother lives in Hackensack!” and he glances at his watch after which simply shakes his head and walks away. That’s why it’s Hackensack! [Laughs]

io9: What do you suppose Chucky, the character and horror icon, brings to the desk in 2021 that’s distinctive?

Mancini: I feel that over time with the flicks we’ve completed, we’ve discovered that we are able to plug him into totally different subgenres and totally different tones and now even totally different media, and he can work. He’s a really versatile character, and I feel he’s advanced that approach. I imply, a part of it, hopefully, was good writing. You know, form of deliberate planning. But he has advanced in such a approach that it was partly as a result of I simply needed to maintain myself amused and entertained as a author. And so after I was writing the totally different motion pictures, I simply needed to reinvent it in order to not do the identical factor time and again. But I feel that that has actually helped us.

So to reply your query, I feel that Chucky has this versatility as a personality and that enables us to plug him into totally different sorts of metaphoric subtext. Because you at all times want that; it must be about one thing. The monster must be a metaphor for one thing. When we began out within the ‘80s with the first Child’s Play, Chucky was a metaphor for consumerism run amok, say. But on this first season of the TV collection, we used Chucky as a metaphor for bullying, which is a very potent situation within the zeitgeist, significantly because it pertains to youngsters, realizing that [teenagers were] going to be our our foremost characters. It’s vital have that, and to set a stake within the floor in order that every thing, irrespective of how absurd all of it will get, it stays rooted in some sort of actuality. Beyond that, with this one particularly, I needed it to have some real-life, 14-year-old angst and ache. I feel that’s one of many causes individuals appreciated it—and that’s one thing that I knew that the tv format would offer a chance [for], to construct in some actual coronary heart. I feel we’re all—all of the writers and administrators and producers—we’re all tremendous blissful that that appears to have landed. People actually appear to love these characters and the adventures they went on and the emotional arcs that they skilled.

io9: The tone of the present is exclusive since you stability gore with some very campy humor. But then there’s additionally these emotional moments, as you talked about.

Mancini: Yeah. I feel it’s identical to, the totally different colours go nicely collectively. The totally different flavors go nicely collectively. For me, I’m at all times doing that with the flicks, too—mixing extra grounded, naturalistic stuff with the camp that inevitably comes from Tiffany and Jennifer Tilly. Finding the stability between horror and naturalism and comedy and stylization on the opposite two ends of the spectrum, that’s very attention-grabbing to me.

Chucky’s first season is now streaming on Peacock; Chucky season two will hit SYFY and USA Network someday in 2022.

Wondering the place our RSS feed went? You can decide the brand new up one right here.