SYFY & USA's Chucky slashes all the way to second season renewal

Pop culture's favorite killer doll isn't going anywhere. As of Monday, it was confirmed that the Chucky TV series will officially return for a second season next year. Created and showrun by Don Mancini (progenitor of the Child's Play film franchise), the show represents the titular character's first time on the small screen after more than three decades of feature-length outings.

"We're thrilled to start pulling the strings on a second season of puppet mayhem with Chucky," Mancini said in an official statement. "Many thanks to our partners at USA, SYFY, and UCP for their incredible support and guidance bringing Chucky to the small screen, bigger than ever. And to the fans, Chucky sends his still-undying thanks, and a message: ‘This isn't over, not by a long shot. You better watch your backs in 2022!'"

Chucky is one of the top two new cable series of 2021 (alongside another SYFY Original, Resident Alien), drawing in nearly 10 million viewers across all platforms during the course of its first season. News of the renewal comes a day before the Season 1 finale on Tuesday night at 10/9c.

"My favorite thing about this season, definitely, was doing the Jake/Devon romance," Mancini exclusively told SYFY WIRE, referring to the main characters played by Zackary Arthur and Björgvin Arnarson, respectively. "The journey of Jake — Jake's character, going from bullied, abused, lonely kid who could go down a dark path and almost does, but gets talked off the ledge by newfound friends and first love ... I knew that if we could pull that off, and do that to the degree that you could bring a tear to people's eye, that would be surprising, in the context of a Chucky thing."

He continues: "I love trying to keep it fresh in that way, but also just the response to it that I've heard from young gay horror fans, and that's who we did that for. [We wanted] to give young queer horror fans representation in the lead in a show — and I think that's my favorite thing that we did."

Set in the sleepy Jersey hometown of notorious criminal Charles Lee Ray, Chucky centers around a brand-new group of young protagonists who come face-to-face with the stab-happy Good Guy doll (voiced by the returning Brad Dourif). In addition to a fresh cast of characters, the series also brings back a number of Child's Play vets like Alex Vincent (Andy Barclay), Christine Elise (Kyle), Jennifer Tilly (Tiffany Valentine), and Fiona Dourif (Nica Pierce).

Speaking with us a little over a year before the premiere, Mancini stated that his goal with the series was to bring Chucky into the 21st century and explore "what it means to be a kid today."

"How does Chucky operate in a world where kids spend so much of their time on social media?'" the creator explained. "Playing video games, interacting with one another on social media as opposed to in a park, which is what we might have depicted 30 years ago. I think the prospect of seeing Chucky sharpen his skills and add to his toolbox, some of the technical goodies that we have at our disposal now, that's something I think people will find pretty interesting."

Photo: Brendan Meadows/SYFY

Mancini, who directed the pilot episode, serves as an executive producer alongside David Kirschner, Nick Antosca, Alex Hedlund, and Harley Peyton.

The Season 1 finale — titled "An Affair to Dismember" — was written by Mancini and will air on SYFY and USA tomorrow night (Tuesday, Nov. 30) at 10 p.m. EST. The entire first season will be available to stream on Peacock starting Wednesday, Dec. 1.

Additional reporting by Caitlin Busch

SYFY, USA, Peacock & SYFY WIRE are all owned by NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.