Chucky has always been a coverage priority for us here at Horror Press, with full episode-by-episode recaps having a home on this site from the outset (and they’re pretty comprehensive ones, so if you need a refresher, be sure to check them out). But lately, the focus on Chucky for fans hasn’t been on the existing episodes but on ones that haven’t been made yet.
Will Chucky the TV Series be Renewed?
Following the season finale on May 1st, the cast and crew of Chucky have taken to Twitter and Instagram with #RenewChucky, calling for fans to make their voice heard on getting the SyFy original series renewed for a fourth season. Just as the show explored the space between life and death in its third season, the state of Charles Lee Ray’s television future is in a foggy spirit realm of its own; over a week later, and the network has been sparse in its response to calls to get the show back.
So as the #RenewChucky movement reaches a swell among fans, and calls come in for the killer doll of the people to bring a tidal wave of blood across America once more, it’s evident that we don’t just want a Season 4—we need a season 4 for a more satisfying closer.
Major spoilers ahead for everything in Chucky Season 3. Reader discretion is advised.
CHUCKY SEASON 3 TAKES THE LEAP OF FAITH…
Season 3 was first and foremost a season of great concepts and fun moments. Many of them hinge on the series’ willingness to go out on a limb and try something odd, which is a strength despite some wishing for a straightforward and back-to-basics approach with Chucky. And what were these major moves exactly? Well, the most important ones:
·Taking the action to the inner sanctum of the White House
·Said White House being a locus of spiritual energy filled with ghosts
·A shadow government covering up Chucky’s crimes
·Chucky being given an expiration date by the voodoo god Damballa and left to die permanently
·And (what many will recognize as the MVP of the season plot-wise) putting Tiffany through her paces with some jailhouse antics before her impending execution
That’s not even mentioning that the finale is mostly a ghost battle in the afterlife where Jake tries to get Chucky’s spirit to destroy itself, which backfires and lets the doll take his body for a joyride. All of this is what prime Chucky should look like. These are the off-the-wall inventions of Don Mancini that made us love the franchise in the first place; they’re adventurous and different from everything that comes before them.
That and all the insane kills this season had just ripped.
Rest in peace to Sarah Sherman’s face, that was NASTY nasty.
…BUT LANDS BACK IN THE USUAL BUSINESS
But the trick of Season 3 that makes it less than satisfying is serving a lot of high-stakes crazy plot points, and ultimately, not keeping the mad momentum. Chucky dies permanently—until he doesn’t. Nica gets to see her victory over Tiffany—until she doesn’t. And Jake is trapped in the spirit realm with Chucky piloting his body and torturing his loved ones—until he isn’t. We’re given what I think is a really good meal, but the plate is taken on the last few bites and replaced with leftovers. And leftovers are great, but this weird chicken dish you were serving was even better.
I don’t expect Mancini and Company to permanently kill off some of the most beloved characters in horror history for a whammy ending when there are plenty more wild and weird stories to be told with them. I want those stories! But the endings for these characters in Season 3 felt like the safest options, which runs counter to everything we’ve seen. Chucky murders dozens of people in one of the most secure places on earth, kills the President, launches an ICBM to the North Pole, and then becomes a White House ghost with blood-bending magic.
And then…
He is a doll again.
IT COULD BE THE END, FRIEND—BUT IT WOULDN’T BE THE ONE IT DESERVES
I’m by no means saying to retire the character permanently. But as far as wrapping up the show and finishing the Hackensack Cycle in Chucky’s spanning saga, it felt like being sent back to the drawing board. It takes the ethos of Season 3’s much more experimental supernatural angle and treats it as a pit stop. Chucky and Tiffany ride off into the sunset with renewed vows to do no good together, and of course, Nica and the Hackensack gang (now possessing marionette bodies) are smacked with the cosmic irony frying pan and forced to hunt them down all over again.
Nica might very well be the best example of why Season 3 can’t be the end—the character who has been put through the wringer, isolated, tortured, and is always snatching defeat from the jaws of victory cannot die in a dollmaker’s house as an afterthought to Chucky and Tiffany. Nica’s story is one with a streak of oppressively dark humor. Whether it ends with her triumphing or meeting a grisly end, it must happen on the main stage, not as the cliffhanger for a single television season. When the ending to Chucky comes, we want it to be definite, and we want it to go out with the wild and inventive bang that these characters deserve.
#RenewChucky has to succeed. We, as fans, have made ourselves abundantly clear—we love this show. And loving it means recognizing that it shouldn’t end on this note. So here’s to Andy, Nica, Tiffany, Devon, and every other character we love getting another shot at syndication. Here’s to Don Mancini finding newer, more terrible ways to kill Devon Sawa and Michael Therriault. Here’s to a Chucky Season 4.