Resilient, resourceful, and a master of reinvention, Don Mancini has become a horror icon as much as the titular character in his film and television Chucky, which airs its season finale tomorrow, May 1 at 10 pm ET, simulcast on SyFy and USA Network. Mancini burst onto the Hollywood scene in 1988 with his slasher screenplay titled Child’s Play that, unbeknownst at the time, would live on for 30+ years with seven films and three seasons of a television series. Mancini sat down with us to talk about the third season, the “happy coincidence” of the 2023 Hollywood labor strikes halting production last spring, and some of his dream guest stars would be in the show’s future.
The entertainment industry came to a grinding halt, for a second time in five years, last spring when the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike, joined soon after by the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA. Because the strikes did not come as a surprise, many shows rushed to finish as much filming as they could before their talent would be barred from continuing work. Mancini and the Chucky team had already finished the first four episodes of its eight-episode season, and the fourth episode just so happened to end with a surprising reveal and cliffhanger, something Mancini called a “happy coincidence” that worked in everyone’s favor, including the ‘NBC overlords’.
“The episode was written and we always knew it was going to end with Chucky pulling his Phantom of the Opera mask off to reveal his aging face. Universal and NBC wanted to air something in October because it’s Halloween season and Chucky is very much an ambassador for that season, especially with the Chucky-themed mazes at the [Universal] parks. It worked out well because episode 4 ended with a big cliffhanger, it was a happy coincidence.”
[[[It wasn’t until just after Thanksgiving of 2023 that production was able to resume once the strikes officially ended with new contracts in place for writers and actors. The back half of the season began airing earlier this month, much to the excitement of fans who waited six months for the season’s conclusion.]]] Chucky and the Child’s Play franchise has long focused on mortality, with the titular killer doll always looking for a way to stay alive and keep killing, whether it’s possessing Andy as a child, Chucky and Tiffany trying to transfer their souls into two teen lovers in Bride of Chucky, or creating spiritual clones of himself ala Voldemort’s Horcruxes in Harry Potter.
“One of the fun things about him is that after 35 years, he’s a fairly complex horror slasher as compared to his brethren like Michael Myers, Freddy Kreuger and Jason,” Mancini explained. “We know a lot more about him than those other guys. I thought it was fun as a subtext for these characters who have been in pop culture for so long and portrayed by the same actors for decades, to start to deal with age. That struck me as an interesting thing to do and it’s a primal horror, we’re all afraid of aging and death and sickness. To see them deal with that and how they respond has been a lot of fun.”
While the series is often laugh-out-loud hilarious between Chucky and Tiffany’s antics, or the banter between the teen protagonists, Mancini and the writers often remind themselves to “keep the horror end of the horror-comedy going”, sharing that while they have plenty of filler characters poised to be killed off, they still keep audiences surprised with a few beloved characters departing each season.
Season two saw the very surprising death of Nadine, played by the delightful Bella Higginbotham. “The murders can’t be all fun and games. They have to land and hit you emotionally for the show and franchise to maintain its status as a legitimately scary enterprise,” Mancini went on. “But I always feel like ‘ugh people are going to lose their shit about this one’, and this season that was with Ms. Fairchild, the kids’ beloved teacher, and guardian who has been the only adult they’ve had in their corner. I knew that was going to be divisive. It’s sad because we get attached to these characters and the actors who portray them. Sometimes sacrifices must be made!” he laughed.
The series has seen many guest stars through its three years on the air, some of whom play fictionalized versions of themselves, including Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, Sutton Stracke, and Tilly’s real-life sister Meg Tilly. “I really love funny people,” Mancini said. “This past season we had Kenan Thompson and Sarah Sherman from Saturday Night Live and Nia Vardalos who I thought was brilliant, and John Waters returns to the franchise in the back half of the season.”
We asked who some dream guest stars Mancini had for the show’s future, and some comedy icons quickly came to mind. “I’d love to have Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara, that’s probably a longshot. The other night at the GLAAD Awards, Sharon Stone was there and Jennifer [Tilly] was talking to her, and I went ‘oh my god, can you imagine if we got Sharon Stone on the show?!’”
“I’m gonna just put that out into the universe. You can report this!” he said to me, with a laugh. “Sharon Stone, you have an open invitation to play whatever you want on Chucky!”
Don’t miss the season three finale of Chucky, on May 1 at 10 pm ET on SyFy and USA Network, and available to stream next-day on Peacock.
