Don Mancini, creator of the Freddy Vs. Jason, his popularity within the horror community has never waned. A crossover with a more relevant character could be the most natural way to bring him back into the nightmares of general audiences.
Over 30 years after his killer debut in 1988's Child's Play, Charles Lee Ray's killstreak is alive and well in Chucky, a 2021 TV show about the deadly doll's attempts to corrupt a teenage outcast. Friday The 13th series of films.
Don Mancini already has an outline for his desired Chucky vs Freddy movie. Chucky season 1 ends with a truck-load of possessed "Good Guy" dolls in the hands of Chucky's long-time partner-in-crime Tiffany (part of a plan confirmed in Chucky episode 7). This actually provides the perfect segue into a potential Child's Play On Elm Street movie. A crossover between Chucky and Freddy makes sense, too. A large part of Freddy's appeal is his distinctly sadistic personality, something he has in common with Chucky. The pair would surely have a lot to say to each other, though they may not see eye-to-eye on everything. Of course, a crossover between these two characters can't be guaranteed. There are plenty of challenges that come with trying to get such a thing off the ground.
Don Mancini's Chucky Vs Freddy Crossover Plan Explained
Don Mancini is the creator of Chucky, writer of all seven Child's Play movies and director of Seed Of Chucky, Curse Of Chucky and Nike's bizarre Freddy Kreuger sneakers). A sadistic sense of humor only goes so far when it's being used on someone incapable of reacting to it.
Mancini goes on to say that he thinks Chucky and Freddy would be a "really fun double act." In of plot, Child's Play On Elm Street would be a "horror movie version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," with Chucky and Freddy having a rapport because they're "fans of each other." Chucky and Freddy would attempt to outdo one another in a competition to see who can kill the most teenagers before the sun comes up. Eventually, though, there would be trouble in paradise. As Mancini puts it, "Elm Street isn't big enough for the two of them. It can only contain one killer."
How Chucky Season 1 Sets Up "Child's Play On Elm Street"
Towards the end of Chucky season 1, Chucky transfers fragments of his soul into several "Good Guy" dolls in one go. Several actors play dual roles, but this plotline allows Brad Dourif to outdo them all. Chucky's plan is to ship these possessed toys to kids in various hospitals around the country, thereby allowing him to continue his killstreak on a national level and ascend into the serial killer hall of fame. In the final episode, Andy Barclay - Chucky's first would-be victim - hijacks the truck full of "Good Guy" dolls on its way to the airport. However, a doll version of Tiffany pops up from the back and pulls a gun on Andy, regaining control of the evil operation.
This is where Chucky season 1 unwittingly sets up Child's Play On Elm Street. Freddy vs Jason 2 could still work, but Freddy vs Chucky is more interesting. Chucky is in control of many "Good Guy" dolls at the end of Chucky season 1 and can therefore be in multiple places at once, so Child's Play On Elm Street could take place at the same time as Chucky season 2.
Chucky Vs Freddy Makes Sense For A Crossover
Though the approach of Freddy Vs Jason makes sense on paper, in practice it leads to a somewhat one-sided viewing experience. A character with personality will always be more interesting than a character without it. On the other hand, a showdown could be bland if the characters involved are too similar. A balance has to be struck in order to create a compelling dynamic. It isn't important whether the almost rejected Seed Of Chucky).
When the pair eventually fall out as per Mancini's premise, there could be a few things fueling their conflict. Though both Chucky and Freddy are remorseless serial killers, Chucky draws certain moral lines which Freddy seems to have no issue crossing. In Chucky season 1, episode 8, "An Affair To Dismember," when asked by his army of possessed "Good Guy" dolls about an age-limit on potential victims, Chucky establishes a ground rule of "no babies." When pressed for more detail, he settles on "nobody under the age of 5 or 6." In A Nightmare On Elm Street, Freddy is described as a child murderer. It's implied that his usual victims are much younger than the teenage characters he targets in the movie. Freddy even targets an unborn child in A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, one of the few movies never restored on DVD or Blu-Ray. Chucky wouldn't approve of such young victims. Freddy is also implied to be a child molester (this is much more obvious in the 2010 remake). In Cult Of Chucky, Chucky is disgusted by Dr. Foley, a psychiatrist who turns out to be a rapist, to the point that he promptly stomps on his face. Chucky wouldn't be okay with Freddy going any further than simply killing his victims.
The pair could also come to blows over simple jealousy. Whoever loses the competition probably won't be a good sport about it. There are only so many potential targets on Elm Street anyway, and Freddy Krueger has killed most of them. If the movie features teenage protagonists, they could be the ones to stoke the flames between Chucky and Freddy, either by providing information about Freddy's true evils or by pointing out that Elm Street isn't big enough for two serial killers.
Freddy and Chucky are separated by a plane of existence, which has to be surmounted in order for their fight to take place. One way this could happen is if Chucky uses voodoo to bring Freddy into the real world. The only problem with this is that it has been done before; in fact, it's the very thing that allows the titular terrors to face off in Freddy Vs Jason. It also removes a lot of Freddy Krueger's nightmare powers, reducing him to a hard-to-kill human. A better solution is to have Chucky use a voodoo spell to get himself into the dream world. Though Freddy has come across those who fight back within the dreams he invades, he always has an advantage because he can contort the dream to his desires and is unable to die. That's why having Chucky transfer himself into the dream world is so interesting. Whether they're in Freddy's dream or someone else's, the pair would be on equal footing. The conflict would have proper stakes, Freddy would retain his interesting dream-fueled abilities and Chucky could kill in ways he never dreamed of before.
The Biggest Challenge To A Chucky/ Nightmare On Elm Street Movie
As entertaining as Child's Play On Elm Street sounds, it's unlikely to actually happen. As Don Mancini himself says on the previously mentioned Friday The 13th writer Victor Miller (who hates the sequels) has only recently won back the rights to the franchise, and Freddy Vs Jason was delayed several times even though New Line Cinema owned the rights to both characters.
A Child's Play On Elm Street isn't out of the question. Perhaps the biggest indicator of its potential success is Don Mancini's ion - and well-defined plan - for it, alongside the success of Chucky season 1 (the ending of which leaves plenty of room for a spinoff ). Chucky and Freddy are both fan-favorite characters (though Kreuger has the best slasher killer quotes) and a crossover between them makes a lot of sense, too. However, it takes more than one man's ion to get something as ambitious as this off the ground. Whenever different movie studios and IPs are involved, there's a lot of red tape that sometimes can't be circumvented. It would certainly be amazing if Mancini managed to cut through it.
Chucky season 2 is expected to release this fall.