The USA Network and Syfy have now successfully done what the electric chair, tons of desperate protagonists, and that one time they made a movie without Brad Dourif could not: Kill Chucky.
Deadline reports that the network's gleefully bloody horror-comedy series, based on the Child's Play franchise of films, has now officially been canceled after three seasons. Don Mancini, who both created the franchise, and served as showrunner on the TV show, issued a statement today, saying he was "heartbroken" over the news. "But I am so grateful for the killer three years we did have," Mancini writes. After thanking his collaborators and network, Mancini also made a statement that history has actually borne out pretty well: "Chucky will return! He ALWAYS comes back.”
Given that the film series was basically moribund when the TV show was launched—with the 2019 theatrical reboot, which lacked both Mancini and Dourif, largely getting ignored by audiences—it's kind of remarkable what a critical darling the Chucky TV series turned out to be. The show generated rave reviews, a couple of Saturn Awards, and a large quantity of extremely impassioned Slack messages from our colleague, TV writer Saloni Gajjar, urging us to just watch the dang thing any time it came up in the news. Here's Saloni detailing the show's merits in a more formal setting, writing about its third season—i.e., the one that put its titular murder doll in the White House, to grand comic effect—in October of last year:
The success stems from an unabashed commitment to weird risk taking. Yes, of course, Chucky is implausible. The series begs you to fling logic out the window in audacious ways. It has always embraced campiness, letting the Good Guy Doll run amok as it gleefully slices, stabs, and shoots victims in heightened situations. The new episodes don’t just maintain a gory momentum; they elevate it, which is usually a big hurdle while adapting slashers into a long-running TV show. Thankfully, Chucky’s writers are up for the challenge in season three. The deaths are bloody disgusting (at least a couple of them will make you want to retch), and the humor is top-notch (our tiny villain visits the doctor at one point, donning a blue hospital gown and everything).
Despite a #RenewChucky campaign, the series aired what will now be its final episode in May of 2024.
