Child’s Play TV Show Announced

Screen Rant

Child’s Play: The TV Series Announced By Don Mancini

By Danny Salemme

Published Jun 22, 2018

Good Guy doll Chucky from Don Mancini's Child's Play series is moving from the big screen to the small screen in an upcoming TV series.

Don Mancini's horror movie series Child's Play is being adapted into a TV series of the same name. Centered around the red-headed killer doll Chucky, the recently announced show will branch off from the film series spawned in the late '80s.

Child's Play is a horror movie from 1988 that centers around a possessed doll hellbent on harassing a son and his mother with vicious, fatal results. When serial killer Charles "Chucky" Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) is on the verge of death, he resorts to a Haitian Voodoo spell to transport his soul into a battery-operated "Good Guy" doll. When Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) purchases the doll as a present for her son Andy (Alex Vincent), she inadvertently invites Chucky into their home, not only putting their lives at risk, but her son's soul as well. Also starring Chris Sarandon as the police detective tasked with investigating the murders committed by the possessed doll, the movie spawned a long-running franchise, including 2017's Cult of Chucky. Now, Child's Play is being adapted into a brand new TV series.

Child's Play creator and co-writer Don Mancini announced the upcoming TV series on his personal Twitter account. He posted a GIF showcasing the original Child's Play logo, as well as Chucky's face partially submerged in shadow. There is an active static ripple effect coating the image and text, followed by a block of text that reads, "Do not adjust your set." However, aside from some details he revealed back in February when he mentioned his interest in turning Child's Play into an eight-part series, Mancini did not include any other details in his post.

The upcoming Child's Play series will follow in a long line of horror movies that have received the TV adaptation treatment. For example, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was adapted into the A&E series Bates Motel with Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore, the Evil Dead film series was adapted into the Starz show Ash vs. the Evil Dead, and The Exorcist was adapted into the Fox series of the same name. And though the success rate with these shows is variable, most of them have typically had the benefit of devoted fanbases.

While a TV series could serve as a great way to reboot the Child's Play franchise, Mancini appears to be interested in continuing the story set in place in the original movie. Curse of Chucky, released in 2013, was expected to be a reboot of the series - not only changing the tone, but Chucky's physical appearance - but the final act of the movie proved otherwise when it was revealed to directly follow the events of previous entries. That said, Mancini's Twitter post reflects a general '80s aesthetic, meaning he may well reboot the series after all.