We are gathered here today in memory of our dearly departed. Joining his brothers and sisters in the great syndication run in the sky, alongside the likes of Blood Drive and Haven—the good who died young. We are here to mourn the renewal of the SyFy original series Chucky. But more importantly, we’re here to ask: so how is this even going to work?

As most of you have already seen on social media in the past week, SyFy has not picked Chucky up for a fourth season. The show had been in renewal limbo for long enough that it felt like the writing was on the wall. This didn’t temper our disappointment when the word officially broke from Chucky mastermind Don Mancini himself on Twitter on September 27th, confirming an article published in Deadline three hours prior.

Despite everyone (including myself in another article on Horror Press) demanding the shows continuation, and despite the hashtag #RenewChucky seeing thousands of devoted fans storm social media to go to bat for the killer doll, SyFy has left the show behind. Since then the fandom has pivoted to a #SaveChucky movement, which is carrying the same speed and fervor as its predecessor.

While some shows have been brought back from the brink of cancellation, the extended bout to renew the show makes it seem unlikely we’ll be getting that fourth season (or a teased episode helmed by Joe Lynch) now.

Which puts the future of the franchise in an awkward place.

CAN A NEW CHUCKY MOVIE FIX THINGS?

Assuming Chucky’s rights aren’t entangled too deeply in SyFy’s affairs, and that the series can continue independent of them, the road forward might suggest a Chucky film in the future that carries on from the point we left things off at. But balancing a film like that seems like more of a nightmare than any of the murderous dolls we’ve seen so far.

While the show may have begun with Jake’s fateful finding of Chucky at a yard sale, the series has thus far relied on an ensemble cast to drive much of its plot. Between Jake, Devon, Lexy, Caroline, Nica, and of course, Chucky & Tiffany, the number of plotlines and character arcs left to close up are far from easy to juggle from a writing standpoint. And even if hypothetical endings were plotted out for each character cleanly, as suggested by Mancini’s petitioning for a fourth season, bringing them all to a satisfying conclusion is nearly impossible in any shorter format.

THE FORK IN THE CHILD’S PLAY FRANCHISE ROAD

So, that leaves only two feasible options if the Chucky team moves forward with a film. The first is to pick up directly where things left off in a film and pull off the miracle of wrapping up a season’s worth of television in under two and a half hours. While I have faith Don Mancini has at the very least a dozen more great Chucky movies in him, continuing from Season 3’s sort of bummer ending wouldn’t only be difficult, it would really alienate anybody who hasn’t kept up with the previous 24-episode saga.

Imagine having to satisfyingly explain how the last season ended with Chucky going to the afterlife, meeting Damballa, coming back as a White House ghost, and eventually luring all of the protagonists to be trapped in dolls…in under 2 hours.

There would then be option two: ignore all the other characters in the Chucky series, or ignore Chucky outright, and pickup with the deranged killer couples’ newly renewed spree. Maybe you could lower the scope down to a select few characters, with Nica, Andy, and Kyle leading the hunt this time as they try to figure out a way to save the Hackensack Trio from eternity as marionettes. But I feel like that would then only serve to alienate fans who have pleaded for months to save the show and have grown incredibly attached to the Hackensack trio.

WHO COULD #SAVECHUCKY?

In an ideal world, Chucky would see an eleventh-hour hail mary from a television network footing the bill on production and letting it live to fight another day. The likelihood of this isn’t so fantastic, as many fans will remember the reason for its unique simultaneous release on SyFy and USA Network, which resulted from a split between the networks to fund the show. So that leaves mostly streaming services. Then who could #SaveChucky?

Shudder seems like the obvious answer thanks to its horror slant, fueling shows like The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula and the upcoming The Creep Tapes. With AMC having regained stability compared to previous years, which saw layoffs and a significant drop in Shudder staff, I would say it certainly holds water theoretically.

Peacock’s previous connection with Chucky, however, leads me to believe they’re the more likely option. Despite its streaming platform seeing an abundance of technical issues, NBC’s Peacock has been a leader for the past few years alongside Amazon and Hulu when it comes to pumping out new original programming. A steady flow of new miniseries and runs at prestige television makes me believe that money-wise, they’re the network to keep an eye on, and the ones I’d bet have the highest chances of giving the series a second wind.

This all may seem like wishful thinking, but I see it as cautious optimism. Don Mancini is still at the helm, all of the cast have shared their full-throated support for renewal, and certainly, stranger things have happened in the TV landscape than a show finding a new home.

So however the future of the Chucky franchise comes to pass, I have a strong feeling the journey there won’t disappoint.

What’s your current theory on the future of the Chucky franchise? Would you want another season, or a new film? Let us know on Twitter and Instagram @HorrorPressLLC! And for more articles on everything horror in movies, television, and more, stay tuned to Horror Press!

As far as Disney Channel original musical franchises go, I will eat my keyboard if you’ve never heard of High School Musical. Descendants is also big enough that you may have heard of those misbegotten movies and the multimedia franchise they spawned. And the Teen Beach Movie duology has maybe come across your desk if you were really digging into the history of Ross Lynch after seeing him shirtless on Instagram. But one of the most exciting Disney Channel musical franchises, ZOMBIES, is relatively unknown among modern childless adults, possibly due to its more recent vintage. I’m here to fix that today.

A quick note: The titles of the movies are technically stylized as Z-O-M-B-I-E-S, but I wouldn’t want to torture my poor fingers by sticking to that bit of grammatical nonsense throughout the entire piece.

What On Earth Are the ZOMBIES Movies?

The ZOMBIES movies (2018’s ZOMBIES, 2020’s ZOMBIES 2, and 2022’s ZOMBIES 3) all take place in a town called Seabrook, populated by both humans and zombies, where Zombietown is separated from the rest of the population by an enormous wall. You may notice that this sounds a little like apartheid. The franchise begins on the day when zombie teens are finally allowed to attend the human high school. You may notice that that sounds a lot like American school reintegration. You may also notice that all of this sounds like a variety of other race-related social issues. You’re great at noticing things. These movies have a lot of progressive social metaphors on their minds. In fact, they have so much on their minds that the overstuffed central metaphor immediately shoots out of their grasp like an over-lathered bar of soap.

The first movie follows the Romeo & Juliet-inflected love story between the wannabe football player zombie Zed (Milo Manheim) and the human cheerleader Addison (Meg Donnelly), who is hiding her own secret from the too-perfect town of Seabrook: she secretly has white hair. Gasp! Addison’s search for an identity and the couple’s struggle to stay together while coming of age will form the spine of the two sequels.

All three movies were written by David Light and Joseph Raso and directed by Paul Hoen (who drapes the world of Seabrook in garish colors, typically pinks and greens, that clash horribly but deliver a vibrant live-action cartoon feel) with music by George S. Clinton and Amit May Cohen. The rest of the ensemble cast is mostly notable for not being notable, but the trilogy has also featured social media star Ariel Martin, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum Matt Cornett, enby icon Terry Hu, and – somehow – a voice-only cameo from RuPaul.

How Do the Zombies Work in ZOMBIES?

The zombies at the center of the franchise were created fifty years ago by a vague incident at the Seabrook Power Plant involving soda. Surprisingly, in spite of how Disneyfied the monsters are, they actually are bloodthirsty cannibalistic revenants at their core. Their base urges to eat brains are controlled by Z-bands, which are Apple Watch-like devices strapped to their wrists, and kept at bay by eating vegan cauliflower brains. However, these devices can be hacked, either partially (to give Zed a boost while playing football, Teen Wolf style) or entirely (at which point the characters begin to mindlessly chase down any humans in their vicinity).

It’s a concept that is less toothless than you’d expect, though of course nobody ever actually gets eaten. And forget about them having any ability to turn humans into zombies, via biting or any other means. This is never addressed and doesn’t seem to be possible in this universe.

Naturally, the dangerous side of the characters is largely kept in the background. The way to recognize a zombie in ZOMBIES is the fact that they all have green hair and their names all have Z’s in them. The zombies also have their own language, to the point that one character, the himbo Bonzo (James Godfrey), only speaks Zombie.

How do zombie parents have children who are also zombies who seem to be able to grow up? And why does Zed have an absent mother, as is Disney tradition, in spite of the fact that she certainly couldn’t be dead considering the fact that she’s a zombie? It’s best not to pull at those threads.

Oh, and did I mention that both Zed and Addison have the ability to directly address the camera like they’re a couple of Fleabags? There is simply too much to cover in just one article, but I shall bravely soldier on.

What Other Monsters Can Be Found In The ZOMBIES Universe?

So here’s the thing. So far, each movie in the ZOMBIES trilogy has introduced a new type of monster to the franchise. The original movie had a West Side Story vibe, with two ensembles on opposite sides squaring off against one another. So the filmmakers figured why stop there? When ZOMBIES 2 introduces werewolves, there’s a whole new ensemble of characters joining the returning cast, with three new main characters leading the pack. Ditto when aliens are introduced in ZOMBIES 3, overflowing the ensemble cast in a way that perfectly evokes the already overstuffed plotting of the franchise.

Naturally, these creatures are largely differentiated by their hair. The werewolves (a deeply iffy metaphor for Indigenous Americans) all have W names and white streaks in their hair. Their powers are less authentic than the zombies, as they mostly just involve roaring and having some vague CGI fang and eye effects applied to their faces. Then there’s the aliens, who have blue hair and A names. They are a metaphor for… immigration? Model minorities? Look, the screenwriters are really trying their best here.

What’s the Music of ZOMBIES Like?

Let us never forget that, on top of everything else, these movies are musicals! The music itself is generally unexceptional bubblegum pop mixed with clunky hip-hop as performed by overeager theater kids. However, as the franchise goes on, it brings in musical motifs for its new monsters that add more variety to the songs including peppering them with R&B and dubstep flavors.

But the choreography? Now here’s where things get really interesting. There’s a reason Milo Manheim blasted past the competition when he was on Dancing with the Stars at age 17. The boy can move. So can the rest of the cast, despite the spotty acting and uneven rapping. The untenably massive size of the cast finally becomes a strength when it comes to showing dozens of bodies moving in unison with tremendously satisfying, athletic choreography.

The franchise also frequently busts out some keen visual ideas that prove that somebody behind the camera was actively trying at all times. This includes an incredible trampoline floor sequence in ZOMBIES’ “BAMM” and the Looney Tunes mayhem of the ZOMBIES 3 number “Ain’t No Doubt About It,” which sees Zed and Addison dancing and accidentally avoiding peril at every turn while trying to mask their doubts about the future of their relationship.

What’s Next for the ZOMBIES Franchise?

Currently, the new release spinoff Zombies: The Re-Animated Series is streaming on Disney+, if you’ve ever wanted to see poorly rendered CG versions of your favorite characters jerkily do dance moves that aren’t really impressive considering their bodies are made of pixels. Fortunately, the proper sequel, ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires, is right around the corner. Probably out of necessity, the cast has been severely cut down this time, but it does feature the return of Zed and Addison (on a post-high school road trip), many of their friends, and vampires who are sure to be a clunky metaphor for… something. I can’t wait!