Original 'Child's Play' Director Responds to Mark Hamill Voicing Chucky in Reboot

Mark Hamill is no stranger to voicing deranged villains, but fans were still shocked to hear the news that he has been cast as the voice Chucky in the new Child’s Play reboot. After all, won’t it be strange to hear the heroic voice of Luke Skywalker coming out of the mouth of the infamous homicidal doll?

The original Child’s Play arrived in theaters in 1988; more than 30 years later, Chucky is still at it, with multiple sequels and even a full reboot coming later this year. The new film will pay homage to the original series, but will also introduce new aspects. Although it has already faced a bit of backlash, ComicBook.com reports that at least one member of the original team—director Tom Holland—had only good things to say about Hamill's casting.

However, Holland’s attitude toward the remake doesn't quite jive with Don Mancini’s—the scribe who wrote every Child’s Play movie apart from the reboot.

“MGM retained the rights to the first movie, so they’re rebooting that,” Mancini explained on the Post Mortem With Mick Garris podcast in December. “They asked David Kirschner and I if we wanted to be executive producers. We said no thank you, because we have our ongoing thriving business with Chucky. Obviously my feelings were hurt. Ya know, I had just done two movies … forgive me if I sound defensive, [they] were both at 83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Even though they didn’t get theatrical releases, they were well regarded. And I did create the character and nurture the franchise for three f***king decades.”

The new installment is apparently switching out Chucky’s possession for a more modern approach, with the toy having AI parts that malfunction. The Child’s Play reboot will arrive in theaters on June 21, 2019.

This article also appears on Mental Floss.