Screamfest held a 20th anniversary screening of Bride of Chucky and Bloody-Disgusting moderated the Q&A with writer Don Mancini, producer and Chucky/Tiffany designer David Kirschner and star Nick Stabile. The Chucky gang are still developing a “Chucky” TV series. Mancini confirmed that the series would not only pick up after the latest movie sequel, Cult of Chucky, but also introduce new characters and storylines.

“We deliberately ended Cult with a bunch of cliffhangers to set up a TV series,” Mancini said.

“Because there are so many different threads now, television could best accommodate that so that was done intentionally. At the same time, we have a whole new world, a bunch of new characters which we can say nothing about.”

Cult of Chucky introduced Chucky’s ability to possess multiple dolls simultaneously, and ultimately take over Nica (Fiona Dourif)’s body. Nica/Chucky runs off with Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) who may still be in actor Jennifer Tilly’s body from Seed of Chucky. Andy Barclay has been left behind in the institution and his foster sister Kyle (Christine Elise) even showed up.

Kirschner suggested that the new characters of the TV series would return to the concept of the original Child’s Play, with Chucky terrorizing a child in the guise of his favorite toy.

“The only thing I think we can say is from the original film that Don wrote, Child’s Play, we are playing with that concept again, the idea of child’s play,” Kirschner said. “I’ll let you guys fill in the pieces of that.”

Mancini filled it in. “It involves children,” Mancini said.

The Chucky series has constantly reinvented itself. Bride made it a self-referential comedy, but Curse of Chucky brought it back to the horror/thriller world. Cult expanded the voodoo mythology even further. Television is the next frontier for Chucky, and shows like Hannibal, which Mancini wrote for, show that horror can be just as effective on television, and perhaps even more so.

“We saw that after seven movies, how can we flip again?” Mancini said. “So this time not by merely changing genre but by changing medium. This will give us a different kind of canvas, a much bigger canvas to explore characters and relationships.”

Screamfest continues through Thursday, October 18.