'Chucky' is Back and Bloodier Than Ever
With 'Chucky' returning, we spoke to stars Jennifer Tilly and Devon Sawa about their characters, what's ahead in season 3, and the show's record-setting amount of fake blood.
“Murder doll” has become a surprisingly enduring subgenre of horror. From Annabelle and The Conjuring series to M3GAN, some of the most successful and popular horror films of the past decade have featured evil dolls doing their worst.
Of course, as one of the original murder dolls, Chucky isn’t going to sit back and rest on his bloody laurels. In a new episode from Season 3 of Chucky – which returns Wednesday, April 10 at 10:00pm ET on USA and SYFY – Chucky watches clips from some of these films and roasts them. “She stole my moves!” he gripes upon seeing M3GAN pick up a machete, before extending his plastic middle digit at the screen.
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It’s a moment of self-awareness in a franchise full of them. The Child's Play franchise was meta before the rest of Hollywood caught up to it. In fact, 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of Jennifer Tilly playing “Jennifer Tilly,” a role that originated with Seed of Chucky when Chucky’s love interest Tiffany used the Damballa amulet to transfer her soul into the body of the Oscar-nominated actress.
“For 20 years, Tiffany has been living in Jennifer Tilly’s body, living Jennifer Tilly’s glamorous life, destroying Jennifer Tilly’s career, and going through all of her money,” the real Tilly said in a recent interview. “So it’s been an opportunity to make a lot of Jennifer Tilly’s career jokes,” she says with typical self-deprecating humor.
“Tiffany loves Jennifer Tilly. She was her biggest fan. And it’s a stalker's dream to actually become the object of your desire,” Tilly continues. “So it has been very meta, and sometimes it’s very confusing. In fact, once Tiffany had a line where she’s like, ‘Am I Tiffany? Am I Jennifer Tilly?’ Even I get confused sometimes.”
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If “Jennifer Tilly” is the rare example of a horror character surviving through sequels and spin-offs, her co-star Devon Sawa is at the other end of the spectrum. He played two characters in the first season of Chucky (where he was killed twice), then returned in season 2 as a priest (whose head eventually exploded), and is now back in season 3 playing none other than the President of the United States (still alive through four episodes). Although Sawa himself connects these disparate characters, he says that “I’ve approached every character differently.”
“It’s an actor’s dream come true to get to play different characters on one long show, and they’re all so different. I hope it never ends,” Sawa said. “I hope Don [Mancini, Chucky creator] keeps giving me this gift and it goes another four or five seasons.”
It’s too soon to know if Sawa will get his wish, but Chucky fans have a lot to look forward to over the second half of this season, including plenty more guest stars (Keenan Thompson, Sarah Sherman, and Nia Vardalos have already guest starred and each has been dispatched in brutal fashion).
“The second half is like nothing you’ve ever seen,” Tilly teases of the new episodes. “It culminates with John Waters coming in, playing the creepy doll maker who created Chucky. And of course, we’re all thrilled to have the icon John Waters – who first debuted in Seed of Chucky as the pervy photographer. But Don, if you haven’t noticed, loves to reuse actors that he adores. And so hence, we have the many incarnations of Devon, and we have John Waters, who loves Chucky, returning in yet another creepy role.”
For more on what to expect from these new episodes, check out our exclusive interview with Sawa and Tilly in the video above. And to watch all new episodes of Chucky on USA Network and SYFY, use the link below to subscribe to Sling Blue!
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