‘Chucky’ Season 2: ‘Good Chucky’ Was Originally an Idea for the ‘Child’s Play’ Movies
Chucky Season 2 keeps taking the horror franchise in new directions. This week’s episode presented the possibility of a “Good Chucky.” This was actually an idea that creator Don Mancini pitched many movies ago. Here’s how it finally worked its way into the show.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for episode 3 of Chucky Season 2.]
Showbiz Cheat Sheet spoke with Mancini about Chucky Season 2. He explained where Good Chucky came from and what to expect from him later in the season. Chucky airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on SYFY and USA Network.
Is Chucky good in season 2?
Well, at least one Chucky is, thanks to the crafty work of Jake (Zackary Arthur), Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) and Nadine (Bella Higginbotham). They caught one of the Chuckys and rather than dispose of it, they tried to interrogate him for information. They strapped him to a chair and taped his eyes open, Clockwork Orange style, and made him watch violent videos as aversion therapy. Mancini had this idea at least as far back as Seed of Chucky.
“It goes back pretty far,” Mancini said. “The idea of Chucky getting to a point where violence made him sick just seemed inherently funny to me. It’s not just that joke. There is a very practical story reason to do it. Because of the Catholic school setting, because one of our themes is guilt and redemption, the character of Good Chucky was just an interesting metaphor for that, the notion of forgiveness. The church asks us to do that, to turn the other cheek. It’s just an interesting way to explore that.”
Good Chucky serves a practical purpose in ‘Chucky’ Season 2
Jake, Lexy and Devon (Borgvin Arnarson) are survivors of Chucky. So, the threat Chucky represents can stifle some of the creative potential for episodes. Mancini called upon his “Clockwork Chucky” idea to give Chucky Season 2 more dramatic possibilities.
After the events of season 1, the kids know what Chucky’s about. So they naturally, faced with the existence of Chucky or the appearance of any Chucky, naturally they would just want to kill him. That’s a problem dramatically because you can’t write scenes with that This is what led me back to the Clockwork Orange idea because I realized if I utilized the character of Good Chucky and gave the characters an emotional reason for wanting to pursue that, that allows the kids to have scenes with Chucky without killing him. It allows me and the other writers to explore the various relationships between Chucky and the kids without it having to go to DEFCON 1.
Don Mancini, Interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, 9/28/22
This isn’t the first time Don Mancini has repurposed ideas
The Chucky franchise has been around so long, every idea eventually works its way in. Mancini said the Catholic School idea was an idea he had for earlier movies, too. One idea for Child’s Play 2 ended up in Curse of Chucky. Child’s Play 2 begins with Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) going to a foster home. Mancini wrote a scene where his mother (Catherine Hicks) lost custody.
I think the very first draft I wrote of Child’s Play 2, it began with a scene that I ended up recycling for the end of Curse of Chucky, which is a courtroom setting with Chucky used as evidence, as a piece of evidence. I always thought that that was a fun scene to do. So at the beginning of Child’s Play 2, Karen Barclay is declared unfit. She’s an unfit mother because she’s insisting that this doll is alive. So they go, ‘Mrs. Barclay, here’s this doll.’ They took a pin, stuck it in his finger, he doesn’t do anything but we see under the table he’s like doing this [grimacing].
Don Mancini, Interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, 9/28/22
You’ll recall a similar scene at the end of Curse of Chucky, when Nica (Fiona Dourif) is on trial as the only survivor of Chucky’s latest killing spree. She testifies that Chucky was alive, like the legend of the prior movies suggested.
“But as with anything in this franchise, if we end up not being able to do something in the moment, I put it in the drawer,” Mancini said. “I can drag that out a couple of decades later.”
