Child’s Play remake director says he wants to do a sequel but it’s up to MGM

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Director Lars Klevberg actually turned last year's CHILD'S PLAY remake into a decent companion piece to the original. The film was expected to be D.O.A. by most but the movie earned a surprisingly decent fresh rating of 63% on Rotten Tomatoes and ultimately grossed $44 million worldwide on a $10 million budget. That should be enough to warrant a sequel, especially for horror, but according to Klevberg, the ball is in MGM's court.

Klevberg took to Instagram to discuss the prospects of a sequel and he expressed a strong desire to make it happen:

"It would be amazing to pull the crew and the actors back for another one, but MGM needs to get their stuff together and do it. It's all there."

The remake followed some of the beats of the original but what made it stand on its own, for me, were the updates that made it more relevant to modern times. Much like the original, the film centers on a boy, once again named Andy Barclay, who has recently moved to a new city with his mom and receives a special present from her in a bid to cheer him up about the move. The present is a seemingly innocent Buddi doll and soon the new toy tries to become Andy's best friend. It's all fun and games until the technologically-advanced doll ends up taking on a life of its own. Things go array this time due to a technical malfunction and not via the spirit of a former serial killer like the original. It's up to Andy to band together with other kids from the neighborhood to stop his new toy from wreaking havoc on the city.

Although Brad Dourif is hard to replace as the original voice of Chucky, Mark Hamill proved to be an adequate substitute as the new voice of the killer doll. The human cast included the likes of Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry, and Gabriel Bateman while the script by Tyler Burton Smith played more with technology getting out of control and taking on a life of its own, which made the film ring more true during this day and age. I suspect some of the issue is that, while the remake turned a profit, the movie stalled at $29.2 million domestically after a decent opening weekend of $14.1 million. That means the remake didn't have much staying power on the domestic front and could indicate that the film couldn't reach fans of the original that were turned off by the idea of a remake. It's also confusing to casual moviegoers that the remake has no ties to the original version of the franchise, which is set to continue on the small screen with the Syfy and USA Network series, Chucky. There were some rights issues at play that allowed the remake to be made without the involvement of the original creative team and still allows the two separate Chucky universes to co-exist. I wouldn't mind a sequel to the remake of CHILD'S PLAY but I also can live without another installment as well.

Do YOU think MGM should make a sequel to the CHILD'S PLAY remake?