Chucky has been reborn in Orion Films’ Child’s Play reboot, and he’ll be voiced by none other than Mark Hamill (Star Wars)!
The news was announced at Orion’s panel presentation today at WonderCon, in Anaheim, says Deadline. “Fans bellowed their excitement when Hamill appeared on overhead video screens in a taped greeting.”
I was skeptical, to say the least, but as the site notes, Hamill is an accomplished voice actor with scores of credits in animated films, television shows, video games, radio dramas, and web projects. The signature role among his voice credits to date is the Joker, the DC Comics villain he portrayed first in 1992 on Batman: The Animated Series and then it’s tie-in 1993 feature film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. The maniacal energy Hamill has brought to the Joker in follow-up animation projects (as well as video games, among them Arkham Asylum) has established the Clown Prince of Crime as perhaps the best-reviewed role of Hamill’s entire acting career.
We love Brad Dourif and he’ll always be our Chucky, yet this is a huge win for Orion. What do you think?
Here’s Hamill breaking the massive news out of WonderCon:
“People let me tell you ’bout my best friend…”🎶
The wicked fun begins when @ChildsPlayMovie is unleashed in theaters: Friday, June 21st 2019. #SoLuckyImChucky 🤪 @MGM_Studios @OrionPictures pic.twitter.com/ExOYuwj9sP— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) March 31, 2019
In the modern take, a mother (Aubrey Plaza) gives her son (Gabriel Bateman) one of those Buddi dolls for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature. The first trailer footage looked bleak and really captured the tone of director Lars Klevberg‘s short film “Polaroid” (watch it here).
The cast also includes Beatrice Kitsos (FOX’s “The Exorcist”), Ty Consiglio (Wonder) and Brian Tyree Henry (“Atlanta”). Klevberg directs from Tyler Burton Smith’s (Kung Fury) screenplay based on the original movie.
Child’s Play will be hitting retailers on June 21, 2019.
