Warning: SPOILERS for Chucky season 1, episode 4.
The recasting Heathers for today's audience and releasing it anew feels all but impossible for a whole multitude of reasons.
Equal parts ahead and a product of its time, certain elements of Heathers have become the stuff of real-world horror. As a result, while the concept has still been explored in dramas and outright horror shows, tackling it in a slightly more comedic context would cross the line into bad taste. That goes double when the perpetrators are arguably depicted as (or just consider themselves) justified avenging angels. Adding to that would also be how society's view has shifted regarding the treatment of sexuality, mental health, and such tragedies as suicide. As such, it would take an extremely talented hand and a massive overhaul to make it work in the modern-day — at which point it probably couldn't be called Heathers at all. Such was proven by the misguidedly bad and widely panned Heathers TV show that emerged in 2018.
Fortunately, Chucky TV show creator, Don Mancini, has managed to pull off this minor miracle and fill the Heathers-shaped void for modern audiences. Despite featuring completely different characters from an envisioned Heathers remake, many of the character archetypes remain the same. That also goes equally for the themes, of which Chucky and Heathers share several. Like that cult classic movie, the Chucky TV show features a charismatic and darkly comedic psychopath who breezes into an idyllic, suburban town. In this case, the serial killer in question just happens to be inhabiting a doll rather than riding a motorbike. Nonetheless, Chucky latches on to the disaffected Jake (Zackary Arthur) as J.D. did with Veronica. Also like J.D. in Heathers, Chucky tries to manipulatively steer his relationship with Jake in murderous directions.
As Multiple killer Chucky dolls running around Hackensack are more palatable and absurd than a trenchcoat-wearing white teen unleashing havoc, which hits far too close to home.
Another way the Chucky TV show has succeeded as an unexpected Heathers remake is through Jake, like Veronica, eventually turning away from the murderous games. Both protagonists eventually opened their eyes to the truth and committed themselves to stopping their respective homicidal maniacs. All the while, they also strive for a better way to move forward in life. Where Chucky brings things into the 21st century, however, is by making its redemptive hero an openly gay one. With that, Chucky manages to lean further into the subversive themes and overall message embodied by Heathers, doing so by actually having the once bully and victim reconcile their issues and form an alliance. Given that Heathers has been included among Chucky episodes references and Easter eggs, it was no doubt an intentional parallel and will help Chucky become a cult classic in its own right.