With the writers’ and actors’ strikes now over, John Waters has wasted no time getting back on the set – in front of the camera this time.
The Baltimore-based writer, filmmaker and actor has joined the cast of “Chucky” Season 3, Part 2, a horror/comedy/slasher series about Chucky the murderous doll and others in the “Child’s Play” universe created by Don Mancini.
Waters played photographer Pete Peters, who met a gruesome fate in the 2004 motion picture, “Seed of Chucky.”
This time it’s a TV series and Waters is taking on a different role, with new episodes coming in 2024 on SYFY and USA Network.
“LOOK WHO’S BACK. John Waters to play Good Guy dolls creator on ‘Chucky,’” Mancini announced in a message posted on Instagram on Thursday.
“The beloved cult filmmaker is bringing even more camp and curiosities to the back half of Chucky Season 3,” SYFY promised on its website.
Production on Season 3 was underway earlier this year when the writers’ and actors’ strikes forced filming to shut down temporarily. The producers divided Season 3 into two parts, with the first four episodes airing in October and plans to finish and release Part 2 once production could resume.
“Child’s Play,” commonly known as “Chucky,” is a franchise that Mancini started in 1988 with the movie “Child’s Play,” which explained how the soul of a serial killer named Charles Lee Ray attached itself to the hottest toy of the holiday season, a Good Guy-brand doll.
Mancini’s initial film gained a cult following and spawned six movie sequels, a television series, a 2019 remake of “Child’s Play,” comic books, a video game, and related merchandise. The shows primarily focus on the serial killer and his ability to escape death by performing a voodoo ritual to transfer his soul into a Good Guy doll. Brad Dourif provided the voice for Chucky in the original films and the TV series, which began in 2021. Mark Hamill was the main voice of Chucky in the reboot, with Dourif partly voicing the character.
Origin story
According to SYFY, the second half of Season 3 will explain where the Good Guy dolls came from, and that’s where Waters comes in.
“The coming episodes will introduce Wendell Wilkins, the reclusive creator of the Good Guy dolls who gets drawn into Chucky’s tangled web,” the SYFY website states. “And Wendell Wilkins will be portrayed by none other than iconic filmmaker John Waters.”
The casting makes Waters Chucky’s parent, in a sense. But the SYFY website doesn’t say how long he will be around.
“Exactly how long Waters’ character will be in the hot seat remains a mystery, but we all know Chucky isn’t big on sharing the spotlight, even if it is with his pseudo-father,” the website says.
Reached today in Cincinnati, where he’s in the midst of a 17-city tour of his popular ‘John Waters Christmas’ spoken-word shows, Waters declined to discuss the plot points of Season 3 but said he was happy to be back with the Chucky cast and crew, including Jennifer Tilly and others.
Waters said he’s friends with Mancini, the executive producer, and Tony Gardner, the artist, puppeteer and special effects designer who fabricates the Chucky dolls and other cinematic creations, including Selma Blair’s breasts in Waters’ 2004 film “A Dirty Shame.”
Plus, Waters said, “I always get recognized in the subway in New York for being in Chucky,” from his performance as the character whose face gets melted off after a bottle of sulphuric acid spills on his head in “Seed of Chucky.”
Filming in Toronto
Waters said filming for his scenes took place this week in Toronto, where he traveled on his “days off” in between his spoken-word performances. It was a shorter distance to travel, he noted, than when he was in “Seed of Chucky,” which was filmed in Romania.
Waters said he knew about his role before the actors’ and writers’ strikes but had to wait for the strikes to end and filming of Part 2 to resume this fall. He said he arrived in Toronto on Sunday, had wardrobe fittings on Monday, filmed Tuesday and Wednesday, and left Thursday to resume his holiday tour. He said there’s potential for Wendell Wilkins to be a recurring character in the series, if Chucky goes beyond Season 3.
“I’m hoping [it’s] renewed,” he said. “If it is, maybe I’ll come back.”
Waters, 77, is perhaps best known for making films, including “Hairspray,” “Pink Flamingos” and “Serial Mom,” and writing books, including “Shock Value,” “Role Models” and “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance.”
In September, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened a retrospective of his life and work as a filmmaker, entitled “John Waters: Pope of Trash.” “Hairspray” and “Pink Flamingos” have been added to the prestigious National Film Registry maintained by the U. S. Library of Congress.
Fame maintenance
Throughout his career, Waters also has appeared on talk shows and in movies and TV shows directed by others – side gigs he has referred to as “fame maintenance.” In the “Pope of Trash” exhibit, one gallery entitled ‘The Fandom of John Waters’ features a video montage showing Waters in many of his roles outside of his own movies, including the sulphuric acid scene from “Seed of Chucky.”
Waters has also appeared on NBC’s “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” in a recurring role as Floyd Cougat the “porn-monger man,” as a bartender on “Homicide: Life on the Street” and as the director William Castle on the FX series, “Feud: Bette and Joan.”
Waters played himself on “The Blacklist” and provided the voice for an animated character named John in a 1997 episode of “The Simpsons” entitled Homer’s Phobia. He talked about the fashion designer Halston and the performer Little Richard in recent documentaries. In a 2021 segment of “Finding Your Roots” on PBS, he learned from Henry Louis Gates Jr. that one of his ancestors owned slaves.
Filming is still underway for Chucky Season 3 Part 2, and exact dates for new episodes have not been announced. Seasons 1 and 2 and the first half of Season 3 can be found on the Peacock network.
For now, Waters is on the last leg of his 17-city tour, with a show Friday night in Philadelphia followed by a show in Boston, two shows in New York City and a show in Alexandria, Virginia. The final performance of his 2023 tour will be a sold-out show on Dec. 21 at Baltimore Soundstage, followed by a Valentine’s Day booking there in February.
