Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Chucky Season 3.

The Big Picture

Season 3 of Chucky left off with a mid-season cliffhanger, with a return expected in early 2024, leaving many questions unanswered. The show has pushed the boundaries of network television with its language, violence, and gore, but didn’t face major restrictions this season. One issue that was encountered during production involved the depiction of Miss Fairchild’s death in Season 3.

Alex Hedlund is a self-proclaimed lifelong fan of the Child’s Play franchise, so when he was given the opportunity to join franchise creator, Don Mancini, and the rest of the long-running cast and crew as an executive producer on the Syfy, USA Network, and Peacock series Chucky, it was a no-brainer. Following a shocking mid-season finale, Season 3 has bowed out at a halfway point, with a return expected in early 2024. With so much still up in the air for the Brad Dourif-voiced serial-killer doll and the trio of teens (Zachary Arthur, Alyvia Alyn Lind, and Bjorgvin Arnarson), Collider sat down with Hedlund to discuss the biggest shock that this season has offered so far and the one moment they almost didn’t get away with, as well as the incredible puppetry and acting that goes into Chucky’s every move.

Along with his attachment to the world of killer dolls, Hedlund has also worked alongside partner Nick Antosca on a handful of scripted true crime dramas, including Candy and A Friend of the Family. Opening up about his draw to the genre, Hedlund shares updates on his next project and his “white whale” story.

Chucky Release Date October 12, 2021 Cast Brad Dourif, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Alex Vincent, Christine Elise Main Genre Horror Genres Horror, Comedy Rating TV-MA Seasons 3
COLLIDER: I’ve watched all the screeners for the season so far, and I’m absolutely loving it. This franchise kills me.

ALEX HEDLUND: Hopefully, not literally.

From the movies to the show, I really enjoy all the changes that have happened and the shock value that goes into it, and the different kills and everything that it pushes. Now that it’s on network television, was there anything this season in particular that they said you could not do, or was there anything that you were shocked that you were able to get away with?

HEDLUND: That’s a great question. Given that it’s a third season, maybe I’m just so used to it, but I think we had a much easier time this year. There were always concerns about whether we were gonna be able to use swearing in the first season, and we definitely get our 10 F-bombs per episode. Love doing that. In terms of the violence and the gore, I don’t think we’ve ever had an issue. It is pretty out there. Those kills are pretty audacious by design. That’s what makes it really fun. You know what? I think the one issue was actually in Episode 2, which was just the depiction of Miss Fairchild’s death. Maybe this is a spoiler, maybe not, but that is not an actual American flag that is wrapped around Miss Fairchild’s head.

Image via SYFY

Oh, really?

HEDLUND: They’re pretty strict about what you can do with the American flag, and any desecration of that is a non-starter, so that is a prop flag. It is designed to look like an American flag, but if you were to unfurl it, you would see that it doesn’t have the allotted stripes and stars. It is the same sort of color palette, and in the close-ups, it does the trick, but we basically had to create this fake flag in order to shoot that sequence. That was the one bump from S&P this year. So far!

I didn’t even think about that, but that absolutely makes sense.

HEDLUND: It wasn’t meant to be any kind of commentary. It’s just the sequencing. And again, that death is supposed to be shocking. It’s a beloved character.

It was! I was shocked.

HEDLUND: I think Don would take it as a compliment because there are so many people who get killed on this show, or frankly any horror movie or TV series, and it’s barely even a story point. It sort of doesn’t even register. So if it’s shocking and you’re emotionally connected to that character and you feel something, again, that’s a huge credit to Don and the writers for using this moment as just a way to not necessarily get at the audience for the sake of it being exploitation or just shock value, but really a story point for our three amigos, and a catalyst for what they’re gonna do next by trying to infiltrate the White House, and now further galvanize themselves to capture Chucky.

Image Via SYFY

What drew you into the [Chucky] series and the franchise?

HEDLUND: This has been a labor of love since my childhood. Child’s Play and Child’s Play 2, especially, were some formative films in my youth. I do remember watching—I believe I was maybe eight or nine years old—the first Child’s Play on HBO one night when my parents were in the other room, and then the next day faking sick and then having my mother rent Child’s Play 2 for me. That movie, it just touched something in me, and it was like this amazing sort of gateway horror movie. I feel like my house became the fodder for sleepovers where everybody would sort of come over, and I would introduce them to Child’s Play 2, and then anything else that sort of came after that.

I’ve been a Chucky fan ever since I was little, and so the idea that now, growing up, I get to work on the series is just… I pinch myself. It is so much fun as a show and as a process. Production-wise, it’s always a puzzle box because it’s not an easy show to produce, but in some ways, when you figure it out, it’s all the more satisfying. And it all starts with Don Mancini, the creator, the showrunner. He’s an amazing partner. He’s just the most inclusive collaborator you can imagine. He is so open and warm, and he truly cares about the franchise and wanting to serve the fans and keep reinventing the franchise. That’s what’s so great about just everything that he’s doing on the show, especially, is every season is just like this wonderful novel that you can sort of pull off the shelf. Even when he [pitched] the White House as a concept about a year ago, I was like, “Wow, I would not have expected that. That’s really interesting. Tell me more.” That kind of creative inspiration, but also just personal warmth and inclusiveness, it’s why we keep coming back. So it’s been a real joy. Again, full circle for me, not only as a childhood fan but also as a producer, as well.

Image Via SYFY

The “Death on Denial” episode was amazing for so many reasons, but I love that it kind of put Tiffany in the driver’s seat. Are there any plans to do something like that again?

HEDLUND: That’s really a question for Don. Whatever he wants to do with that character and whatever subplot or direction, we’re always along for the ride, and eager for it. We would absolutely love that. My focus right now is figuring out the rest of Season 3. We were about halfway, and then we had to stop, so we’re hoping to finish maybe at the end of this year and release the back half of the season for early 2024. I’m not really sure; we’re all on standby. But I will say this, giving the White House as an example, or the way that Miss Fairchild’s death is so shocking: nothing is off limits. No idea is too bold. This character can sort of go anywhere, so it’s really exciting to see what Don is always cooking up.

One thing that I think would really surprise people is the art form of puppeteering that goes into the show. How many people are working on the dolls and making them come to life?

HEDLUND: At any given moment, there may be up to six to eight people doing some kind of performative action. One person is controlling the eyes and doing the facial movements and then somebody else is doing the bodywork and somebody else is doing the stabbing. What’s really important is to emphasize and really give credit to Tony Gardner and his entire team. They are SAG, they are in the guild, and they are actors. They are actually rendering that performance. It all starts with Don and what the writers have created on the page, and obviously, Brad Dourif is a legend, his verbal performance is so iconic, but bringing that body to life and rendering that performance, it’s a physical doll, and we just paint out the puppeteers in post. There’s nothing that’s CGI about those body movements. That is literally a puppet that is being controlled.

It can be very frustrating because it’s obviously the symphony of all of those things being timed correctly. It can be a real challenge, but those puppeteers have it down to a science. It’s amazing to watch from the sidelines as they can tweak something, or Don will give a line note to say, “Can his brow change just ever so slightly when he delivers this line?” And then they’re able to do that. All the credit to that team for bringing something to life that in a lot of productions is seen as kind of anachronistic to the times because there is so much reliance on CGI or things that are not there when you’re acting opposite. Just as a blanket statement, I think the cast really prefers and enjoys the interaction with Chucky and the puppeteers because it’s something literal to react to — and when you hear Brad’s voiceover in the background delivering those lines amidst this performance, it all just comes together. It’s a bit of a magic act, but as a fan, you’re seeing it happen in real-time, and it’s so exciting.

Image via Syfy

Outside of Chucky, I know that you have worked on Candy and A Friend of the Family. I am a huge true-crime fan, so I’m wondering what drew you into the genre.

HEDLUND: Well, my partner, Nick Antosca, who created or co-created those shows, we like to talk about the fact that “true-crime” is a phrase or a term that is something that we’re not necessarily the most enamored with. I don’t think he or I ever set out to want to do true crime, per se, but in a weird way, it’s a lot easier to get somebody excited to watch a show if you say it’s a true-crime show rather than, “Oh, it’s a domestic drama.” If you say, “Oh, hey, this show is Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” the buyer’s eyes sort of glaze over. But if you’re like, “Oh, it’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and then slowly turns into Cape Fear,” they start leaning forward, and that’s much more interesting. In some ways, it’s like these movies that you grew up watching and loving and that I moved out here to make aren’t getting made anymore. They’re being made as six, eight-hour miniseries.

So, the format has shifted. But I think it’s also really interesting to find that psychological character drama, and if it just so happens to have a murder at the end, or something sort of horrific, that kind of Hitchcockian thriller that is hiding within, it’s a bit of a Trojan horse. So the whole thing is really just a cheat. It’s really kind of an oversaturated subgenre in the marketplace. There’s so much in terms of TV, movies, podcasts, your news stories outlets, and whatnot. We’re always more interested in what the horror within everyday humanity is or the humanity within everyday horror, but just really trying to sort of mine, “What is the sort of stranger-than-fiction quality of those stories?” So it’s not just the focus on the grisly details because that is what it is, and we don’t want to be exploitative about it.

Totally.

HEDLUND: And the solving of a crime or the judicial process, there’s a lot of people who do that stuff really, really well. We’re always striving to find that stranger-than-fiction story and trying to find some empathy within a character, or within a family that is so unbelievable. You want to find that emotional connection that drew you into that story and find something where you’re like, “Well, I would never do that,” or, “I would never put myself in a situation,” or, “I would see those red flags coming.” The idea of taking a step back and really putting yourself in that family’s point of view, I think that’s something that’s really important, and that version of true crime is always something that we’re intrigued by.

But it’s just getting harder and harder to do. There are so many stories out there, so in some cases, it’s sort of a dealer’s choice. But I think for us, it sort of has to start with the people. And hopefully whoever is involved, whoever’s story it is, we love to partner with them, especially Jan Broberg on Friend of the Family. We would have not told that story without the involvement of her and her family because we wanted to get it right.

Image Via Syfy

I heard that you guys are working with Hulu on a Murdaugh family situation.

HEDLUND: [Laughs] It is a situation.

Can you give any insight on how that’s going to work as a scripted series?

HEDLUND: I’ll be a little cagey about it just because we are early in the process. Also, every time you turn around there’s another Murdaugh doc or movie or also something in the headlines that’s being printed. The ending is still very much TBD, weirdly. But Michael Fuller has written an amazing script. We are working on more now, and we’re really excited about it. That’s all I’ll say.

Is there a certain story that you’d like to dive into in the true crime genre?

HEDLUND: You know what my white whale is? I’ll put this out there: Amy Fisher. Her story is fascinating, not only in terms of the Long Island Lolita aspect of that early ‘90s rip-out-of-the-headlines and the multiple MOWs that were made, and all the sort of late-night Letterman jokes and all of that canon, but subsequent to that, when after Amy and Joey went to prison and how they got together. There’s this long tale and this bizarre love triangle, and I would love to either explore a doc idea or some kind of limited [series]. Obviously, I would want Amy Fisher on board as a partner. That’s kind of the one story that hasn’t been told correctly, 30 years removed now, [and] I do think that clearly she was guilty. I don’t want to sidestep that fact, but I think that the circumstances, and particularly a lot of the grooming and just the home where she came from, there’s a lot of context there that sort of speaks to certain decisions and other things. There’s a fuller picture that hasn’t fully been addressed. So, if anybody is listening, Amy Fisher, I would love to tell that story.

Catch up on all three seasons of Chucky now on Peacock, and stay tuned for the announcement of when Season 3 will return.

Watch on Peacock