The Big Picture
- Collider talks with Don Mancini and Devon Sawa for Chucky Season 3.
- Mancini and Sawa discuss some of their favorite characters and scenes, John Waters, and if we’ll get a Mancini cameo in the franchise.
- Sawa also discusses his audition for the series, working with Mancini, and how Chucky would fair in a fight against some of Sawa’s previous co-stars and roles.
Don Mancini and Devon Sawa are both horror icons in their own ways. For Mancini, he’s the creative mind behind the ever-growing and uber-popular Child’s Play franchise which has spawned seven feature-length films and an incredibly successful TV series, which is now in its third season on Syfy and USA Network. On the other side of the camera is Sawa, whose appearance in Chucky marks his first time working with Mancini, but is far from his first foray into horror-centered projects. Back in the early 2000s, Sawa’s face was synonymous with the first film in the Final Destination franchise, and the actor also held roles in other notable projects, including Idle Hands, SLC Punk!, Wild America, Now and Then, and more.
The pair have been working together since the show first slashed its way onto screens back in 2021 and, despite Sawa’s characters constantly catching the sharp side of the killer doll’s blade, he’s come back in a new role time and time again. Recently, Collider caught up with Mancini and Sawa to chat about the current season, which sees the actor play not just one but two roles — just like he did back in Season 1. We covered some fun topics like whether Mancini has ever wanted to make a cameo in any of the titles, and what villain from his past Sawa would like to see duke it out with Chucky. We also learned about how Sawa’s audition for the show blew Mancini’s mind and led him to almost immediately get the part. Check it all out below.
Chucky
After a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begin to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets.
- Release Date
- October 12, 2021
- Cast
- Brad Dourif , Alyvia Alyn Lind , Alex Vincent , Christine Elise
- Main Genre
- Horror
- Seasons
- 3
‘Chucky’ Season 3 Introduces the Killer Doll’s Father – No, It’s Not Don Mancini
COLLIDER: Congrats on another fantastic season full of blood, guts, and death, and all that good stuff. Very much well worth the wait on that second batch of episodes. My first question is for you, Don. I was so stoked, and I know everybody else is going to be stoked to see John Waters back in action, but was there ever a minute where you, as Chucky’s true daddy, thought about coming in for the first time to do a cameo situation?
DON MANCINI: Ha, no. [Laughs]
I kind of figured that was the answer, but I had to give it a shot.
MANCINI: I don’t want to ruin our show. Although I don’t know, I feel like when I’m working with actors, I certainly don’t get self-conscious in being playful and acting out, but I’m just not really confident of my abilities.
That’s fair. I just thought you felt like maybe stepping in. But John Waters is a good second choice.
MANCINI: I mean, maybe at some point. God, the thing is, I should have done it, like, 20 years ago.
‘Child’s Play’ Director Reveals How ‘The Shining’ Helped Bring Chucky to Life
Tom Holland also talked about having to build sets to accommodate the dozen puppeteers needed to turn the Good Guy doll into the murderous Chucky.
Sure. That’s fair. Devon, now that we’re three seasons in, you’ve played five different characters, which we love. Do you have a favorite out of the five?
DEVON SAWA: I keep bouncing around. I love playing the priest. I love playing James Collins. Randall is a hoot. I’m all over the place. Every day it would be a different answer. I would say the president right now.
I’m a Randall girly, myself.
SAWA: He’s a lot of fun.
MANCINI: I agree. You have moments as Randall that are really funny in subtle ways. I was telling Devon the other day, there’s this one scene when he’s reading the president’s biography that’s just really funny. Then Henry comes in the room with Chucky, and so Randall, as he’s standing up, he’s sort of becoming the president, sort of willing himself into taking this on because he’s got to convince the little kid. It reminds me of Christopher Reeve from the first Superman in that scene after he’s gone flying with Lois, and he comes back. It’s that thing where he takes off the glasses, like, “Lois…”
SAWA: I love that.
MANCINI: It’s just little things that he does. I love the scene where Gil Bellows is talking about the history of presidential doubles, and he refers to like, “And so the scenario is going to be that the president’s in worsening condition,” and Randall kind of goes [coughs]. It’s so good. It’s really fun.
A Showdown Between the Ghosts of Devon Sawa’s Past
Another one for you, Devon. You’ve had a very long and incredible career with a bunch of different genres. In a showdown between Chucky, the three ghosts from Casper…
SAWA: Stretch, Stinkie, and Fatso.
Nailed it. And Anton’s hand in Idle Hands, which I just recently rewatched — what a true classic — and then Death in Final Destination, who do you think would win?
SAWA: I don’t know who would win. Out of those people fighting?
Out of those people fighting. The ghostly trio is fighting together. They’re on each other’s sides.
MANCINI: Choose wisely, Devon.
SAWA: I would have to say Death from Final Destination is the most powerful.
Yeah, I felt like putting that in there was kind of a cop-out almost.
SAWA: Well, I don’t know how it would kill the three ghosts. But I would love to see something like Chucky battle the hand, running wild in a little house, like a hand and Chucky chasing him it with a knife. That would be the ultimate battle.
That would be. Don, take some notes here for the hopeful Season 4.
MANCINI: I think that’s funny.
The other thing I was gonna throw in there was 127-whatever hits of acid that your character takes in SLC Punk!, but that just felt like even a Good Guy doll couldn’t survive that.
SAWA: Sean the Beggar would survive them all.
I know we’re about out of time, but how did you guys get involved with Chucky together? Devon, how did you get into the franchise?
SAWA: I auditioned. My agents gave me the script and the sides, and said, “Here’s Chucky,” and I said, “Oh my god!” I worked on it, and I worked my ass off on it because I wanted to be a part of it. I told Don that in the slate. Usually you just say your name and your height, where you’re from, and if you’re vaccinated at the time, but I…
MANCINI: [Laughs] He was vaccinated, so hey, he’s in!
SAWA: But no, I had to tell Don in the slate what I was doing and why I wanted it and why I was so passionate. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I know it was very long.
MANCINI: It was great. I was already a fan of his, of course, but his audition for both of those roles were fantastic, and it included a bit of a dissertation about how he saw the character’s respective pasts and how they may have been similar as children, and how they diverge, and it was like, “This guy’s really thought about this a lot.” It was super impressive.
Seasons 1 and 2 of Chucky are now streaming in their entirety on Peacock with new episodes from Season 3 slashing onto the streamer weekly.
