By As the Chucky panel began to wrap up, a fan approached a microphone placed for fan questions. He begins to talk to Don Mancini, the creator of Child’s Play, as well as the cast of Syfy’s Chucky series and tells them that Chucky is a horror icon. The man has been a fan of it since he was a kid and explains to them how happy he is that he can watch the series with his kids now. He said that if you were to make a horror-themed Mt. Rushmore, Chucky would be on it, which resulted in the entire crowd applauding.
That moment emblemized the mood and tone of the Chucky panel at NYCC. While the panel was designed to promote the second season of the Syfy series, it became more of a reflection on the entire franchise and its impact on the horror industry. Don Mancini began by saying that originally, horror movies like Child’s Play were seen almost as “bastard step-children” by Hollywood executives, but now there’s a prestige around them that wasn’t present even a decade ago. Child’s Play has lasted decades and while Freddy and Jason appear to have retired, Chucky is still going strong, arguably stronger than ever.
There were some mentions of the second season throughout the panel, but honestly, there wasn’t too much to get excited about. The show premiered on Wednesday, so all they could do was show a teaser of the second season currently airing, have a fun behind-the-scenes gag between cast member Devon Sawa and Chucky, and show a clip from the second episode. If you were going expecting to see a deep dive into the show’s second season with clips from later in the show, you were probably disappointed. But if you just loved the franchise and wanted to celebrate its long history, then this was the place to be.
Copyright: Universal
As the cast talked about their time on the second season, Jennifer Tilly, who was greeted with thunderous applause thanks to her involvement with the franchise since the 90s, stole the show repeatedly by just mentioning little behind-the-scenes info not only from the show but from the franchise’s history. Like did you know that during the filming of Cult of Chucky, Universal demanded that no kids were to be killed in the film? Tilly vivaciously described how there was a kid involved in the filming of the second season whose character was killed, but the kid was excited about it because they said that they were officially the youngest person to ever be killed by Chucky. Tilly then joked that if they get renewed for a third season they should kill a toddler just to spite the kid and crush his spirit.
Jokes like that had the audience rolling and there was an energy to the whole proceedings that just couldn’t be described. Fans applauded when most of the cast said that their favorite movie in the series was Child’s Play 2. A debate ensued onstage about whether or not Jennifer Tilly killed more people in season 2 than Lachlan Watson’s Glen/Glenda. Even Alex Vincent, who has played Andy since the very first movie, made a surprise appearance and jokingly asked if his character was alive or dead after the first season’s finale and whether or not he was still needed on set. The word of the day was simply fun. Everyone had fun, laughs, and good times as they all reminisced about watching a murderous little doll kill dozens upon dozens of people.
Chucky’s second season is currently airing on Syfy on Wednesday nights.
