‘Chucky’ Is Coming to the Small Screen as a SyFy Series

Charles Lee Ray’s evil spirit is coming to terrorize us on TV. SyFy has given out a straight-to-series order for Chucky, the Don Mancini-created villain of the Child’s Play franchise. The network announced its plans to develop the show during the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday (via Variety).

The news comes a year after SyFy announced that the series is in development. Mancini will act as Chucky’s showrunner, executive producer, and director of the pilot episode. Joining Mancini at the executive producing team are Harley Peyton, David Kirschner, and Nick Antosca, with the latter producing via his Eat the Cat banner.

“The character Don and David created has terrified audiences for over 30 years,” Chris McCumber, President of Entertainment Networks USA & Syfy for NBCUniversal, said in a statement. “The longevity and legacy of Chucky speaks to the creative storytelling and the loyal fans the film series has collected over the years. We are excited to once again partner with Nick and UCP on this new Syfy series, and are incredibly proud to bring Chucky to television for the first time with the original creators.”

Back when SyFy was developing Chucky, it was revealed by Antosca that their team is planning to bring back the feel of the original 1988 film into the upcoming series. “The series is going to be closer to the tone of the first two movies in the series though,” Antosca said. “It’s going to go back to a sort of classic scare.”

In the movie, Chucky is a harmless doll that suddenly turns vicious when the spirit of murderer Charles Lee Ray possessed the toy. The doll is brought home one night by Karen Barclay as a gift for her son Andy and causes a slew of bloody murders soon after. Child’s Play also had a reboot last year with Mark Hamill lending his voice to Chucky. Aubrey Plaza and Gabriel Bateman played Karen and Andy Barclay respectively.

Chucky has no set release date yet.