A couple of months ago, the first photo of the new killer doll from the upcoming Child’s Play remake was officially released, and longtime fans of the series greeted this reveal with widespread hostility, largely because the reboot is going ahead without the permission of series creator Don Mancini. The writer-director himself even spoke for many when he responded via Twitter with that old Mariah Carey putdown, “I don’t know her.”
But while this new doll may not be the same Chucky who’s spent the last thirty years winning the hearts of horror fans, he is at least a Chucky, with Bloody Disgusting reporting today that the Lars Klevberg-helmed film will be sticking with the original name.
You may well have accepted this as a given, but since no official material on the reboot has yet contained the murderer’s name, this has technically been a matter of ambiguity until now. What’s more, with the film reported to rework Chucky’s origins into those of a psychotic A.I., the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray has essentially been written out of the backstory, raising the question of how this character got their title.
As the new poster indicates, the doll was manufactured as part of a line of “Buddi” toys, which has previously led to speculation from fans that this will be the name of the new villain. While this apparently won’t be the case, it’s a pretty ironic suggestion, seeing how “Buddy” was originally written to be the doll’s name in the 1988 film.
In any case, we’ll see whether audiences take to this rebooted Chucky when the next Child’s Play hits theaters on June 21st, 2019. But if you still miss the old Brad Dourif version, you’ll be able to see him once more in the upcoming Child’s Play: The TV Series.
