Child’s Play TV Show Chucky sets Brad Dourif to return as the voice of the classic killer doll. Released in 1988, the original Child’s Play movie introduced the world to Chucky, the toy doll with the soul of a serial killer. The first film would prove such a hit among horror fans that a whole franchise would follow, lasting until 2017’s Cult of Chucky.
Of course, 2019 saw Chucky getting a rebirth of a sort with the reboot of Child’s Play, which saw Chucky re-conceived as a high-tech toy suffering from some murderous glitches (allowing for lots of satire to co-exist with the horror). As part of the reboot effort, the new Child’s Play replaced Chucky’s long-time voice actor Dourif with Mark Hamill, a move that didn’t necessarily sit well with fans of the original run of films (though Hamill is certainly an accomplished voice actor in his own right). Now though, Chucky is getting yet another new life, this time in a TV show from original Child’s Play creator Don Mancini.
In a development that will make a lot of old school Chucky fans happy, TVLine reports that Dourif is officially coming back to play the murderous little doll one more time in the new Syfy and USA Network series, officially entitled Chucky. Dourif is the first cast member confirmed for the show, though Jennifer Tilly is reported to also be coming back as the Bride of Chucky.
Dourif of course is a well known actor even outside the world of killer doll horror, with credits that include David Lynch’s 1984 version of Dune, the classic HBO series Deadwood, the horror sequel The Exorcist III and the 1975 Oscar-winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next (which saw Dourif earning his own nomination for Best Supporting Actor, as well as a Golden Globe Supporting Actor win).
Even with all his many accomplishments though, Dourif is possibly best-known today for voicing Chucky in the original Child’s Play movie as well as its sequels. With Dourif’s return to the role in Chucky, the new show is definitely announcing that it’s taking back the legacy of the character from the 2019 reboot, which went off without creator Mancini’s involvement. The reboot did indeed alter Chucky quite dramatically from the way he was depicted in Mancini’s movies, even beyond changing his voice. But the reboot certainly did not improve upon the character as Dourif and Mancini conceived it, robbing him of his personality and turning him mostly into a vessel for somewhat lame jokes about the dangers of living in a wired world. Of course, humor will still be a big part of Chucky, but with Dourif back delivering the lines, that humor will have a whole different bite.
Source: TVLine