Chucky TV series creator on gay lead character: ‘Chucky is not homophobic – he’s an equal opportunity killer’
Chucky director, writer and producer Don Mancini says he's been ramping up queer themes since 1998's Bride of Chucky.
Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: Universal Content Productions
The man behind the new Chucky TV series has revealed why he made his main character gay.
Dan Mancini, who also directed the last three Chucky films, serves as director, writer and producer on the new TV show from Universal Content Productions.
Speaking to SFX, Mancini – who is gay – furthermore explained he’s been introducing gay elements to the franchise since 1998’s Bride of Chucky, on which he served as writer and exec producer.
“Chucky is not homophobic, he’s not a bigot. He’s an equal opportunity killer.”
“Ever since Bride Of Chucky is when I started deliberately injecting specific gay content into the franchise,” he says. “And with each successive film, I’ve sort of ramped it up more and more.
“So taking it into the medium of TV and having so much more storytelling space at my disposal, which necessarily means much more opportunity to explore character and relationships, I realised that it gave me an opportunity to really be more personal, and even autobiographical, than I’ve ever been before. So the character of Jake, played by Zack Arthur, there are a lot of autobiographical elements for me in that character.”
The 58-year-old continues: “He has a father, played by Devon Sawa, who’s not necessarily very comfortable with his 14-year-old-son’s burgeoning sexual and romantic identity, and Chucky’s appearance into this character’s life I think will be surprising. Or maybe not so surprising to diehard fans who, of course, are well aware that Chucky himself has a queer kid [Glen/Glenda from 2004’s Seed Of Chucky].
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“That’s an important part of Chucky’s relationship to this new kid, Jake, that he comes across. Even though Chucky is a bully, and even though Chucky tries to insinuate himself into this character’s life in a very dark way, Chucky is not homophobic, he’s not a bigot. He’s an equal opportunity killer.”
Mancini wrote all the Chucky films, including the first (Child’s Play) back in 1988.
Chucky is on Syfy and USA from 12 October. A UK release date is to be confirmed.
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