Friends To The End: Aubrey Plaza & Brian Tyree Henry Could Star In The New CHILD’S PLAY
The tale of two Child's Play(s) continues, as both Don Mancini's TV series and a reboot from IT producers David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith have been announced over the last few months. Where Mancini's will continue the murderous adventures of the Chucky we all know in love (reportedly complete with the support of legendary Good Guy Doll voice actor Brad Dourif), the MGM-backed revamp will change the character completely.
The modern day reboot is alleged to follow a group of kids (not too far removed from the archetypes contained in IT and Stranger Things), who encounter a technologically-advanced/defective Good Guy Doll, instead of a butchering knee-high maniac, possessed by the spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray. Whether or not that does it for you is up to the individual viewer.
Though Mancini has no problem tossing shade at his competitors, this second Child's Play - which is penned by Kung Fury's Tyler Burton Smith, and will be helmed by Polaroid's Lars Klevberg - is instead opting to just step up to the plate and move production forward. According to Collider, Aubrey Plaza and Brian Tyree Henry have both entered talks to co-star in the rebooted Child's Play, with Plaza playing this iteration's spin on Karen Barclay (a role filled by Catherine Hicks in Tom Holland's original), while Henry is likely playing Chris Sarandon's detective character (though Collider had yet to confirm this at the time of publication).
The "mother" role would be a rather new one for Plaza, who is usually cast as a twentysomething manic/comedic type or romantic lead (with Legion and Ingrid Goes West proving that the actress can totally bring the weird when asked to). Meanwhile, Henry is continuing to have a rather sizable cultural moment. On top of being in one of TV's best current series, Henry is now a two-time Emmy nominee (for both Atlanta and This Is Us) who seems to be appearing in every other movie in theaters right now. Along with recently appearing in White Boy Rick, Henry's got sizable roles in Steve McQueen‘s Widows and Barry Jenkins‘ If Beale Street Could Talk. Seeing him take a crack at a horror picture should be one hell of a good time, as the guy's got an indelible screen presence.
Personally, I'm struggling with this news. On one hand, both of these actors are terrific. On the other...I kind of wish they were working with Mancini instead? Besides being a huge fan of his Child's Play series, Mancini's TV work on Channel Zero and Hannibal has been exemplary, so hearing that he's going to be bringing possibly his greatest creation to the small screen sounds rather intriguing. Here's hoping he can match the reboot's stellar start in the casting department, and keep this Child's Play war interesting.
