‘Chucky’: ‘Child’s Play’ Star Brad Dourif Returning to Voice the Evil Doll in New Series

It has been announced that iconic Chucky star Brad Dourif is returning to voice the evil doll in the new Child’s Play series. According to TV Line, Douriff is the first cast member that has been announced for the new horror series, which will air on both Syfy and the USA Network. Don Mancini, who created Chucky, will serve as showrunner for the series, as well as an executive producer.

“After a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begin to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets,” reads an official synopsis of the new show. “Meanwhile, the arrival of enemies — and allies — from Chucky’s past threatens to expose the truth behind the killings, as well as the demon doll’s untold origins as a seemingly ordinary child who somehow became this notorious monster.” Chucky was set to begin production in July but is unclear if the coronavirus pandemic delayed those plans. A teaser for the show has since been released, and it revealed that the show will debut in 2021.

Mancini and Douriff have been working together on Child’s Play films since the first was released in 1988. Since then, Mancini has been the screenwriter on every Chucky film, with Douriff voicing the murderous marionette in each, as well as playing Charles Lee Ray, the vicious killer who uses voodoo to transfer his soul into the “Good Guy” doll that is Chucky. Child’s Play 2 (1990), Child’s Play 3 (1991), Bride of Chucky (1998), Seed of Chucky (2004), Curse of Chucky (2013), and Cult of Chucky (2017), are all the direct sequels of the original film. In 2019, United Artists and Orion Pictures release Child’s Play, a re-imagining of the original film, which is not connected to the main franchise’s story-line. Neither Mancini nor Douriff were involved with the production of that film.

In 2013, Douriff’s daughter, Fiona, joined him in the franchise, playing Nica Pierce in both Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky. While speaking to Forbes’ Scott Mendelson in 2017, Mancini was asked what his favorite of the Chucky sequels as and the filmmaker replied, “Can I say two? It would be Bride of Chucky and Curse of Chucky.” He explained that the addition of Jennifer Tilly in Bride of Chucky and Fiona in Curse of Chucky made both of those films wonderful reinventions for the iconic franchise.