In a (fictional) world where possessed dolls, slashers, and various bodily harms exist, rights issues can still be terrifying. Fans familiar with the Child’s Play series know this first hand. The sleeper hit was also a bit of a headache. The good news is that for the most part, this Brad Dourif-voiced stalker (last seen on SyFy) can be found on Peacock. Provided you’re only looking for its sequels, and the reboot. 

However, there’s one crucial piece missing to the puzzle if you want to take the whole journey. Thanks to a cocktail of success, momentum, and corporate wrangling, you might be swearing over how one Chucky project seemingly got away. If you want to know why, then gather ’round – because it’s time to share that twisted tale.

Child’s Play Was An Unexpected Hit, With A Rocky Start

By the time 1988 rolled around, heavies like Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers, and Jason Voorhees would be seen as either tired or silly self parodies. Co-writer/creator Don Mancini and Fright Night director Tom Holland bucked that trend, while lovingly dipping their toes in its waters, with Child’s Play. 

The picture had a huge strike against it from the start. Thanks to poor test screenings requiring a new voice for Child’s Play’s doll-based terror. However, MGM/UA brass would eventually credit its “well thought-out battle plan” (via AFI). This included a non-Halloween release date, as winning the battle. Which meant it was time to move onto some sequels, right? 

An Attempted MGM Merger Caused The Studio To Pass On Child’s Play 2

If there’s one name that Child’s Play fans and James Bond aficionados can collectively curse. It’s Qintex – the Australian company that tried to acquire MGM/UA in the late ‘80s. The fallout of that deal allowed for a superlong gap between the release License to Kill and Goldeneye. This is something I discussed in my previous professional life at CinemaBlend.

Unfortunately, Charles Lee Ray’s continuing adventures were also a casualty in the process. Per a 1989 report from The Los Angeles Times, the then studio home of Don Mancini’s creation wanted to drop it faster than you could say “Hi-de-ho!” Franchise producer David Kirshner confirmed as much, through these short remarks:

The new management has decided that horror films are not the kind of films they think will be good for the image of the company.

To paraphrase the doll of the hour’s own words from Child’s Play 3, they just couldn’t keep a Good Guy down. A good old fashioned bidding war ensued, and the winner would see a seemingly unlikely party advocating its victory. 

Universal Would Become The Home For (Almost) All Things Chucky 

MGM’s loss was Universal’s gain, as the Child’s Play saga eventually became one of the legacy studio’s calling cards. But even I was surprised to learn, via an oral history from EW, that Universal was so sweet on Chucky, they enlisted Steven Spielberg himself to secure the win. 

You can thank An American Tail for this special favor. As that’s the connection that then Universal head Sid Sheinberg used to nab Child’s Play 2. (David Kirshner was a producer on that animated tearjerker, along with executive producer Spielberg.) Mr. Sheinberg’s request was eventually executed, as Mr. Kirshner recalled thusly: 

Steven said, ‘David, listen, I would like you to give Universal the first shot at this. Give them your wish list of what it is that you want, and if they don’t meet that, then I’ve done what Sid Sheinberg has asked me to do.’ And so I said, ‘Great, let’s move forward with it.’

From that point on, this burgeoning series was a Universal product – right through to this very day. Four movie sequels, and Chucky’s three-season SyFy series later, this doll of a killer remains with the home that adopted him to kill and kill again. But like most of the major horror players of the ‘80s, complicated rights issues would wreck havoc – especially in 2019. 

MGM’s Claim To The Original Film’s Rights Spawned The 2019 Remake…

Similar to the final pre-reboot Jason Voorhees movies eschewed the Friday the 13th branding, Chucky shed his original title post-Child’s Play 3. Starting with 1998’s Bride of Chucky, each subsequent entry would carry that same suffix. Which may have been due to our killer becoming the true star of the show.

That artistic choice may have helped leave the door open for MGM’s controversial 2019 Child’s Play reboot. Supposedly, starting life as a gritty reboot with Brad Dourif’s Charles Lee Ray. It turned into a wildly different concept. One summed up by Child’s Play 2 star Christine Elise, in this excerpt from a 2018 interview with Horror Geek Life: 

I think the doll is going to be an artificial intelligence doll that goes haywire, so it’s not going to have the whole element of the serial killer possessing it, et cetera, so it’s not going to be, really, a Chucky film. … It’s especially douchey when you know that Don is developing a TV series … it’s going back to the Child’s Play name and it’s deep into development.

With Mark Hamill voicing a killer wi-fi enhanced doll that’s a little too protective of his Andy (Gabriel Bateman), Child’s Play now had a bit of brand confusion. While I enjoy this reboot quite a bit, I can see where it did more harm than good. Especially since people are about to confuse it with the OG picture, which isn’t available on Peacock. 

…And That’s Why Child’s Play (1988) Is Streaming On A Different Platform

Since there’s a fissure in the rights for the Child’s Play/Chucky series, I need to reiterate that last part as the reason why we’re here. Sadly, if you want to stream the original 1988 picture with that title, you’re going to need either an MGM+ or AMC+ subscription. MGM holds the rights to the initial film. While the rest of the series lies with Universal. This case of separation anxiety has become a Halloween horror of a different kind.

Even 007 eventually saw his entire legacy under one roof. So perhaps there’s hope for Chucky’s very first picture to be moved. With the 40th anniversary only three years off, and Don Mancini planning another movie in the Chucky saga, the time could be right for that sort of thing.