"I love trying to keep it fresh, but also just the response to it that I've heard from young gay horror fans, and that's who we did that for, was to give young queer horror fans representation in the lead in a show," Mancini says. Ultimately Nica-Chucky is a cisgender guy's soul running around in the body of a cis woman and expanding his "palette," as Tiffany calls it in Episode 5.
"I think Chucky is like a guy who's always been straight, always identified as straight, but if you can get him drunk, he'll let his guard down," Mancini explains with a laugh.
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Unlike the Babadook and M3GAN, horror movie characters adopted as campy mascots by extremely online members of the LGBTQ+ community, Chucky is canonically a queer ally, and he was created by a gay man—screenwriter Don Mancini.
While the first three movies in the Child’s Play franchise aren’t overtly queer-coded, the series took a distinctively campy turn with 2000’s Bride of Chucky, which includes a casually positive representation of a gay character (Damien, played by the late Alexis Arquette) at a time when such a thing was still weirdly unusual in pop culture, and especially in horror.
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Britt Hayes
Britt Hayes (she/her) is an editor, writer, and recovering film critic with over a decade of experience. Like his recent AI-driven protege M3GAN, Chucky is something of an LGBTQ+ icon.
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At the beginning of June, Peacock debuted a curated assortment of movies and shows for Pride month.
"Like a lot of guys who aren't 100 percent confident in who they are, he lashes out in a way that feels comfortable." Because of who Chucky is, he's always going to be allergic to sentiment, even when it comes to his own budding sexual exploration.
Peacock did not have any comment, but Don Mancini, who is gay, created the Chucky horror films franchise in the ’80s ― and in the 2021 TV series “Chucky,” the doll is brought to life by Jake, a 14-year-old gay boy.
In episode 2 of the series, Chucky tells Jake that he has his own queer and gender-fluid child.
“You’re cool with it?” Jake asks.
“I’m not a monster, Jake,” Chucky replies.
Chucky is so much of an ally that in the first season, he murders Jake’s homophobic father. That their friend 'til the end Chucky is now on his own journey and exploring his sexuality three decades after he first terrorized the silver screen is just a bonus.
To kick off Pride month, the streaming service Peacock displayed an image on its home screen of Cher, Alan Cumming and Chucky, the red-headed doll from the horror franchise.
Some social media users were confused by Chucky’s inclusion, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it was “certainly a choice,” while others pointed out Chucky is an ally to the LGBTQ community.
Chucky Is a Pride Ambassador for Peacock
When Peacock launched its Pride month collection, there was some confusion online over the inclusion of a certain killer doll. The Amplifying LGBTQIA+ Voices collection predictably includes classics (The Birdcage, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) along with camp offerings (Burlesque, The Traitors) and—Child’s Play?
She has written for The A.V. Club, Birth.Movies.Death, and The Austin Chronicle, and is the former associate editor for ScreenCrush. In addition to this delightfully deranged take on gender fluidity, Seed of Chucky features John Waters—queer icon and King of Filth—in a supporting role. “We have been very proud to be branded as the—I don’t know if we’re the gay horror franchise, but we are a gay horror franchise.”
In Seed of Chucky, Glen/Glenda’s souls are successfully transferred into the bodies of Jennifer Tilly’s twin children (in the Chucky universe, Tilly also plays a fictional version of herself), who appear as teens in Chucky season 2.
Unless you’re a horror fan or really keyed into pop culture, you probably didn’t realize that Chucky is a queer icon. The first is in Episode 5 when we're first reunited with Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly) and Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif), who's possessed by Chucky. In the above video, we've highlighted Chucky's allyship throughout Season 1, but in talking to Mancini, it becomes clear how much nuance there is to Chucky's interest in the matter of queerness.
Mancini says that, in short, yes, Chucky is a queer ally.
Chucky will defend Jake (with his own motives behind it, of course) and accept his kid's gender fluidity, but Chucky's arguably part of the LGBTQ+ community as well. Britt's work has also been published in Fangoria, TV Guide, and SXSWorld Magazine. However, that's not going to stop him from being a psychopathic killer who's generally chill with other peoples' sexualities, including Jake and Devon's.
Getting to show that relationship was imperative for Mancini, who says it was his favorite part of bringing Chucky to the small screen.
These scenes, Mancini explains, emphasize how Chucky explores his own sexual fluidity in Season 1, even if he's unwilling to voice it. Her brain is a cursed tomb of pop culture knowledge.
But Glen is sharing his body with another soul—Glenda, a girl-doll who revels in killing.