Author: Trafficblast

First shown off during the March ID@Xbox showcase, Soup Pot is the debut title of Manila developer Chikon Club. The adorable-looking cooking game captured my attention with the reveal that it possesses no fail states (a rarity for cooking games), so I caught up with Chikon Club’s Trina Pagtakhan and Gwendelyn Foster to talk about how the game grades the player without failing them.

Eventually, our conversation turned to other aspects of Soup Pot, such as the game’s connection to real-world events. Soup Pot sees you play as someone stuck indoors during a pandemic, teaching yourself how to cook in order to pass the time and have something to eat. Your only human interaction are the chat rooms for your livestreams that document your efforts and conversations with the people delivering ingredients to your door. You also fill your downtime by scrolling through a fictional cooking-based social media site called Cookbook, where you’ll remain apprised of what’s going on in the world. So even though Soup Pot is a cute, humor-focused exploration of Filipino and Southeast Asian cuisine, there’s a meaningful underlying narrative thread to the game too.

My conversation with Pagtakhan and Foster is transcribed below. Edits have been made to aid in readability. Soup Pot is scheduled to launch for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC in August.

Why make a game with no fail states? Cooking games have kind of almost always included some form of grading system.

Pagtakhan: Oh, but we do have a different way in which the game judges the player. So we didn’t want to put in a fail state because we wanted to encourage experimental cooking and having fun in the kitchen. So for the judging part, there’s this chat box that’s filled with your relatives who are either roasting you or praising you for the decisions you make in the kitchen. So if you put too much salt, they’re going to go like, “Oh, that’s too much salt. What are you doing?” And then if you bake it perfectly, they’ll go like, “Oh, perfect, perfect. That’s my niece right there.”

Hearing the food make little sounds as you pick it up and cook it is really cute–where did the idea for the food to “talk” come from? Why add a feature like that?

Pagtakhan: Oh, when we first started making this game, we initially just wanted to make a simple cooking game, and then it somehow evolved into a meme game in the process. And we also had Gian, our audio designer who was just making songs for us, saying these ingredient names in a gremlin voice. And then he added it into the game, and he kind of edits it to make it sound really cute. So, I think that’s one of the reasons why our game blew up in the first place.

Is the player the only character in the game, or are there other characters that they can interact with?

Foster: So, we are actually in the process of implementing a chat option. In the marketplace, you can ask for delivery. I don’t know if you’ve been in the Facebook marketplace, or if it’s the same there as it is here, but whenever somebody posts like, “Here is 70 kilos of fresh radish for a thousand dollars,” and then somebody annoyingly goes, “How much?” even though it’s already in the description. So that’s one of the things you can interact with.

You can also interact with the delivery people–this is a pandemic, that’s the reason why you’re streaming in the first place: You’re suffering from the pandemic, and you have to feed yourself. So that’s why you’re chatting with new people.

Oh, so this game takes place during a pandemic? Does Soup Pot have real-world connections to COVID-19 then that will be explored through the Cookbook social media app?

Pagtakhan: On the newsfeed on Cookbook, we will be putting in fake news articles, but they’ll be somewhat similar to real-world COVID-related events, like how the prices of the vegetables hike or plummet and how that affects the market.

So how does that news feed work? Will Cookbook randomly update over time, or does the player have to do something in order to see new posts?

Foster: It’s both [laughs]. We have a timeline, but once you finish a certain number of recipes, then certain news events trigger–we wanted to do non-linear storytelling. So the news posts come in depending on the progress of the player. It’s initially a bit of fun, and then [the news] gets alarming. But the whole point of the social media is that it makes the downtime while cooking more enjoyable. And, in real life, people’s behavior during their downtime usually has them go through their phones. So we want to mimic that. There is evergreen news that just comes in at any time, whether it’s like facts about customs or beliefs. And then we have breaking news.

Do you get a sense of who someone is based on what they post to Cookbook, or how they comment on news posts?

Foster: Yeah. You will eventually discover who does fake news because of the pandemic. There is so much misinformation. It’s to recreate [the real-world]. There are certain things that would have gotten better if the proper information had been independently disseminated earlier.

Sounds like Soup Pot is a bit of a political game hidden beneath the trappings of a cutesy cooking game then.

Pagtakhan: On the surface, it’s a meme game, but it is a political game in a way that it informs people that there is absolutely really important stuff happening outside. But it’s not freaky. It’s just there to kind of act as a reminder for you. It’s a funny game, but also kind of serious.

Ah, so you got to dig past the meme to see the truth.

Pagtakhan: Yeah, you got to dig past the meme.

Is there a way to capture your creations in the game–like, take photos of your food or write down your own recipes?

Foster: Yeah. You can plate your dishes in any way, and then–essentially, you have like a profile where you can post your creation.

Pagtakhan: Our UI and UX director is also doing this avatar creator inside the game too so you can have a fake profile picture.

Foster: And then your profile is essentially like a real-life profile. You can post typewritten posts, and every time you take a photo, you can look back later and see your achievements.

Are there aspects of the game that take inspiration from Filipino or Southeast Asian culture beyond the food–the layout of the kitchen, for example?

Pagtakhan: Actually, for the kitchen, aside from the Filipino kitchen that we showcased in the trailer, we’re also planning to add a Japanese and a Korean kitchen via DLC. At launch, we’ll be showcasing the Filipino food alongside the Japanese and the Korean food DLC so that you can recreate more recipes.

Aside from that, people commenting on your stream, your relatives, they’re rooted in Asian culture. So you usually have these really judgy aunties, and so the chat will say things like, “Oh no. Why are you cooking like that? You should just go wash the dishes or something.” And then some uncles are going to go, “Oh, good cooking. Now you can marry a husband.” Things like that. And, back to the social media aspect, of course, there’ll still be some of those trolls, which will depend on the news, what kind of people you encounter, and what personalities they all have.

Foster: To answer your question, the more DLC that we have, essentially the more culture your social media will have. Like the Philippines was a colony of Spain for so long, so when you look at Mexican food, there are similar influences–like we actually have handmade tortillas here, though we do not make them like the way Mexicans make their corn tortillas.

We were also occupied by the Japanese before, so we actually have a lot of Japanese people, in general, here–they’ve been integrated into our culture. You learn how to use chopsticks at an early age here, both from the Chinese and Japanese influence. And then we have a lot of Koreans studying abroad in the Philippines. So there’s always a Korean grocery down the street. There was something that I read–I think a couple of years ago–that said that Brazilian food and Japanese food, even though they’re separated by oceans, have similar methods of preparation.

We’re only starting with Filipino food because it’s what we know. But at the same time, moving forward, I mean, even with the internet and everything, and even pre-pandemic, the more exposed you are to food, the more you realize how we’re all the same anyway.

So that’s why there are certain recipes in Filipino culture that we found in Portuguese or in Brazilian culture. I feel that, down the line, the more recipes that we have, the more integrated the cultures will apparently be. Especially in a world where there’s currently no international travel and there’s racism, the best way to just connect with people is through food that you’re sharing.

The releases of Top Gun: Maverick and Mission Impossible 7 have been delayed. According to Deadline, the Top Gun sequel will now hit theaters on November 17, 2021, while the next Mission Impossible movie will arrive on May 27, 2022, which is Memorial Day weekend in the United States.

Both of these high profile Tom Cruise films are distributed by Paramount. Top Gun: Maverick was previously set to arrive on July 2, having been delayed several times prior to that. Production on the movie was completed in June 2019 and the first trailer was released at San Diego Comic-Con the following month.

The currently-untitled Mission Impossible 7 was originally set to arrive in July this year, before being pushed to the November date that Top Gun: Maverick now occupies. The movie recently finished production. The initial plan was for MI7 to shoot back-to-back with MI8, but in February, it was reported that Cruise’s promotional duties for Top Gun: Maverick meant that this was no longer happening.

Top Gun: Maverick also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, and Ed Harris. It’s directed by Joseph Kosinski, who previously directed Cruise in 2014’s Oblivion. Mission Impossible 7, meanwhile, stars Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Hayley Atwell, and Simon Pegg, and is helmed once more by Christopher McQuarrie.

These date changes follow the recent news that Paramount will be moving its big movies to Paramount+, the studio’s new streaming platform, after 45 days in theaters.

A new gameplay trailer for the upcoming open-world MMO survival game The Day Before has arrived, and it’s giving off some major The Last of Us vibes. The game is set in a post-pandemic America where zombies are a constant danger and the remaining humans are fighting to control what precious few resources remain.

The 13-minute gameplay trailer from IGN provides the best look at the game yet. We see a player driving down a muddy road in an SUV who pulls into a dilapidated gas station to collect resources. Zombies show up and the player mows them down with an assault rifle and a pistol.

The trailer also shows off the game’s crafting system and some of the attention to detail in the environments. There is also a particularly tense encounter where the player tries to turn off a house alarm… but it doesn’t go so well.

The Day Before is developed by Fntastic, which is headquartered in the coldest city on Earth–Yakutski Russia. The developers don’t all live there, however, as Fntastic is an all-remote studio.

The Day Before is not the first large-scale zombie MMO game, as it follows the likes of DayZ, DayZ, Rust, and others.

The doesn’t have a release date yet, but you can put The Day Before on your Steam Wishlist now.

Now you can spend more than a PS5 or Xbox Series X on an Optimus Prime figure that transforms itself. Hasbro announced the high-tech robotics toy at Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest, the company showcase of its upcoming lineup. The Optimus Prime Auto-Converting Programmable Advanced Robot – Collector’s Edition is available to preorder for $700. It’s estimated to ship on August 2.

The collectible is the result of a partnership with Robosen Robotics. Hasbro says the Optimus Prime can automatically convert between vehicle and robot form, race in its vehicle form, walk in its robot form, and respond to control commands by voice or mobile app. It will respond to voice commands like “Roll Out,” “Convert,” and “Attack.” It also features programmable tools for you to make your own functionality.

The figure measures 19 inches tall when in robot form and includes a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Plus, it is still a toy after all, so it comes with a battle axe and blaster, along with a charging cable and travel case. It’s based on the G1 (original) Optimus Prime look.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Hasbro and look forward to ushering in a new standard of robotics with the most advanced Transformers robots for consumers ever created,” said Robosen USA director Sean Tang. “The team is working hard to deliver an amazing user experience for fans of this esteemed franchise and produce Transformers that will be a premium addition to their collection with its superior functionality.”

The developers of theHunter: Call of the Wild recently introduced new DLC that brings a hunting dog to the game for the first time. Hunting dogs have been used for a very long time to track down animals and recover them, and for support and companionship in the field. The history of humans and dogs working together goes back thousands of years, in fact.

Dogs were one of the most-requested features from players, and now they’re in the game as part of a $4 Bloodhound DLC pack for the PC and console hunting game, which has millions of players.

We recently had the chance to speak to developer Expansive Worlds about the Bloodhound DLC and more. Game designer Arshak Ardeshir explained to us where the idea came from, if the dog can die (a bleak question, we know), and if more dogs might come to the game in the future.

The bloodhound dog you see in theHunter moves and acts believably thanks to an extensive motion-capture process that saw the studio bringing in multiple dogs and strapping motion-capture suits on them to record their movements.

Dogs are known to be obedient if they are trained, but you still can’t command them to act like you could with a human.

“The planning and execution of the motion capture was challenging, as unlike with human actors, you can’t tell a dog to ‘do that one more time, but stop on your left foot first please,” Ardeshir said. “This made it difficult to predict how the moment-to-moment actions would go. Quite often though, we ended up getting things we needed in places where we didn’t expect, and sometimes things that would seem simple just weren’t happening.”

With the Bloodhound at your side, the dog–which has 300 million scent receptors in its nose–can help you pick up lost blood trails, locate kills, and track prey even when they’ve stopped dropping blood. Additionally, the dog can help you determine when an animal is about to be spooked. Not only that, but having a canine companion by your side in the wilderness makes the solitude of nature more of a shared experience. The dogs in theHunter have 30 companion levels and 15 tracker levels, so the more time you spend hunting together, the more advanced a hunter you may become.

The Bloodhound DLC came to theHunter in late March and it’s already proving to be popular, according to Ardeshir.

“Quite frankly, we’re overwhelmed with all the positive feedback surrounding the first canine-companion in the game!” he said. “It has been a long-time request from our players, so it’s great to see people having so much fun. Our focus now is to continue to monitor feedback, and work on addressing any issues that players may experience.”

You can check out GameSpot’s full interview with Ardeshir below, in which he also talks about the challenges of using motion-capture for the dogs, what was most important in the studio’s research for the dogs, and more about the resurgence in popularity of dogs in games.

“I’m glad that every cycle of digital dogs raises the bar even further in terms of how life-like and loving they can be in comparison to real dogs,” Ardeshir said.

And just so we’re clear up front–your little dog friend cannot die.

“No, the dog can’t die,” Ardeshir said. “Losing your dog forever would be too much of a loss, and if it was rendered incapacitated for a certain period of time, it would be a nuisance.”

Phew.

theHunter: Call of the Wild is available now on console and PC. The Xbox edition is free with Xbox Game Pass.

For those just catching up, what is the Bloodhound DLC all about?

The Bloodhound is the first ever canine-companion in theHunter: Call of the Wild. It keeps players company on their hunts, and brings a wide selection of useful skills to the table, including being able to sense when an animal is about to be spooked, picking up blood trails, and locating harvests.

What was the inspiration for releasing this Bloodhound DLC and using real dogs for the motion capture? What convinced you to use real dogs instead of creating them entirely from scratch in the computer?

It’s important for us that theHunter: Call of the Wild delivers an immersive experience that is representative of the ‘great outdoors’; the beautiful nature, diverse wildlife, and joy of exploration. When our players visit one of the game’s reserves, we want them to feel as if they are really there.

This ethos is true also for the Bloodhound. We wanted to capture all the minute movements, actions, and behaviors a dog performs in day-to-day situations, and translate that into game animations. Motion capture is one of the best ways to achieve this. That said, there’s still a lot of work involved for our animators to make the recorded raw data usable in our engine.

What kinds of things can your dog do and help you with in the game?

The Bloodhound has several tricks up its paw. First of all, it’s an awesome companion and someone to keep you company on long hunts. From a hunting perspective, there’s a great deal of benefits too; for example, it can sense when an animal is about to be spooked, help pick up lost blood trails, locate harvests, and even continue tracking prey that has stopped dropping visible blood clues.

What were some of the most important factors you wanted to get right when bringing the dog into the game?

Realistic movements, sound, and the look of the dog are super important factors in making the dog fun to interact with. The art and sound team worked hard on getting those areas to feel right. Companion-wise, we also focused on making the Bloodhound behave like a dog would when it’s not doing anything special. What it decides to do when you are not giving it commands is equally as important as how it executes specific commands.

In terms of game design, we focused extensively on the usability of the dog, both in terms of how you interact with it, what tasks it can do and how effective it is at performing those tasks. We realized quickly that in order for players to use the dog, and to keep using it over time, it needed to be unobtrusive, easy to use and helpful in situations where players of different skill might struggle.

What makes a virtual dog look and act realistic?

It’s a combination of having access to believable animation and tech that makes the dog more reactive to the player and environment (e.g. ‘look-at’ systems), and using the underlying AI systems to communicate with the game world and the animations systems in a smart way.

Can you walk us through the challenges of creating a digital dog and the work you did to make sure you got it right?

There are a lot of challenges, many of which are unique to the different disciplines in our team. In the end, communicating and ensuring that solutions synergize is what creates a good end result. While there are obvious overlaps, what makes our digital dog work is not the same as a dog in another game. It boils down to what our dog needs to do and what sentiment we are looking for in the player.

As game design spans multiple areas, one of the challenges we faced involved making the dog behave correctly in regards to its decision-making AI linked to what commands we want it to perform, while overlapping that with the dog’s readability. We wanted there to be a clear line of communication between the player and the dog, so that both understand what the other is trying to do. Like is the case with many parts of game development, it’s about researching, creating a design, testing that design with players, and then adjusting and redesigning until you get the desired reaction.

What kind of research did you do for the game? What was most important?

Naturally, the dogs in our preceding title theHunter Classic served as an inspiration to help us learn what we could improve and streamline for theHunter: Call of the Wild. We researched how the Bloodhound is used in real-life hunting and tracking situations by reading books, watching video material, and more. Of course, we also looked into how other games have implemented canine-companions, both in terms of usability, movement and AI.

What were some of the challenges related to using motion-capture for the dogs? And how did you overcome them?

The planning and execution of the motion capture was challenging, as unlike with human actors, you can’t tell a dog to “do that one more time, but stop on your left foot first please”. This made it difficult to predict how the moment-to-moment actions would go. Quite often though, we ended up getting things we needed in places where we didn’t expect, and sometimes things that would seem simple just weren’t happening.

This was also the first time we worked with motion captured animals, which was a fun challenge for the animation team, both from a technical and animation perspective. Motion capture requires a different approach than making hand-keyed animations, as it’s more about subtly editing the data to make it do what you need while keeping the underlying motion intact.

“No, the dog can’t die. We simply don’t think it adds enough gameplay value. Losing your dog forever would be too much of a loss” — Ardeshir

The most interesting challenge was probably creating the dog-to-player interactions. It’s something we hadn’t done before, so there were many technical hurdles regarding aligning and syncing up multiple characters. The dogs we motion captured were also much smaller than the dog in our engine, which made the re-aligning process more interesting. In the end, I think it worked out well.

Sorry for the dark question, but… can the dog die?

No, the dog can’t die. We simply don’t think it adds enough gameplay value. Losing your dog forever would be too much of a loss, and if it was rendered incapacitated for a certain period of time, it would be a nuisance. To combat that, there would have to be layers of information and control to help the dog avoid threats, which we felt was a player-facing task that was not desirable. But who knows, our approach to this might change over time.

Can you speak to the feeling of companionship that having the pup by your side makes you feel in the game?

There is a natural bond between humans and dogs, which I can only imagine stems from our shared 10,000 year history of friendship and co-dependence. Our goal was to make sure we did that history justice by bringing a dog to life that feels right for our game and our players.

There has been a mini resurgence of dogs in video games lately across a number of titles–what’s your take on that?

Like in most other fields, trends in games have a cyclical nature. The timing of this DLC was more closely tied to what we felt the players wanted and our plans for how we want theHunter: Call of the Wild to develop into the future. I’m glad that every cycle of digital dogs raises the bar even further in terms of how life-like and loving they can be in comparison to real dogs.

Now that the dog DLC has been out for a little while, what are you hearing from fans about it?

Quite frankly, we’re overwhelmed with all the positive feedback surrounding the first canine-companion in the game! It has been a long-time request from our players, so it’s great to see people having so much fun. Our focus now is to continue to monitor feedback, and work on addressing any issues that players may experience.

Do you have plans to introduce any further canine companions in the future?

While I can’t speak about concrete plans, we’re always thinking and evaluating how we can evolve and improve the game to meet and surprise player expectations. We’re lucky to have a very passionate community, which helps us gauge what content to focus on moving forward.

We’re past the halfway point of Falcon and The Winter Soldier with only two episodes remaining, and this week’s “The Whole World Is Watching” offered no answers to the show’s long running questions and conflicts–in fact, if anything, it just made the stakes even more complicated. Here’s what went down, and what we can hope for as we head into the penultimate episode next week.

After Ayo and the Dora cornered Bucky to broker a deal for Zemo’s return to prison, Bucky made a counter offer–Zemo is too useful for his knowledge of super soldiers to give up on now, when they’re so close to running Karli and the Flag Smashers aground. Unsurprisingly, this deal had fairly strict terms–Bucky and Sam were allowed less than a day with Zemo before the Dora would come and collect.

This strict time crunch became even more difficult when John and Lemar showed up, also angling to bring Karli and the Flag Smashers in, but with much less patience and finesse than Bucky and Sam. To make matters worse, everyone has converged on Karli in what might be the worst possible moment–the funeral of her mentor figure Donya. Sam had the first shot at reasoning with her, using some of the counseling skills he learned while working at the VA, but John’s temper and mania escalated things before the two of them could broker any sort of agreement or understanding with one another.

In the chaos of the ensuing fight, Zemo managed to briefly corner Karli and nearly killed her–but became too distracted by destroying the vials of super soldier serum she had, which allowed her to escape. A single vial of serum survived the fight, unbeknownst to Zemo, and was found by John as everyone attempted to regroup.

Things went from bad to worse when the Dora returned to bring Zemo in and found themselves in conflict with not only Sam and Bucky but also John and Lemar–while John, specifically, felt threatened by their authority in the situation. The fight that ensued only left John more humiliated, and also allowed Zemo to escape.

Unable to stand up under the pressure and feelings of inadequacy, John secretly took the last remaining vial of the super soldier serum, just in time for a major confrontation against the Flag Smashers. Unfortunately, however, even the physical upper hand didn’t make much difference for the things that really mattered, because Lemar was caught in the crossfire and killed after a super soldier Flag Smasher threw him into a pillar, presumably breaking his neck.

Consumed with blind rage, John promptly chased down the nearest Flag Smasher and executed him with the shield, in a public square, while a crowd of bystanders looked on. We can certainly expect this to be a main focus for next week’s episode–though it’s not clear how or if it will play into the rest of the show’s conflict, or if the Flag Smashers will capitalize on the inevitable PR crisis for Cap in some way.

Here are some things to keep in mind heading into next week:

• Sharon’s mysterious side-gig remains mysterious, but theories about her being the Power Broker have yet to be debunked. She’s certainly got a high powered team at her back in Madripoor.
• The Flag Smashers have apparently produced a list of demands, but what those demands are remains unclear–which is to say it’s not clear whether or not any sort of compromise or reconciliation is possible for them.
• Zemo is currently in the wind and his motives (aside from staying out of prison) remain unknown.
• We can assume Lemar is dead, but this is the MCU so until there’s a funeral or an obituary, it’s probably best not to rule out a miraculous recovery.
• John took the last remaining vial of super serum, meaning there’s currently no way to make super soldiers in the MCU, unless another scientist comes along.
• Karli is also in the wind, and she knows where Sam’s family is–though why Sam didn’t call in a favor with any of the other superheroes he’s worked with in the past to help protect them after they were directly threatened by a terrorist organization is mysterious.

Chucky is the spin-off show from the long-running Child’s Play horror series. It’s currently shooting and is set to arrive later this year on the Syfy and USA Network.

The franchise kicked off in 1988 with the original Child’s Play. The movie was written by 24-year-old film student Don Mancini, and directed by Tom Holland (not the one that plays Spider-Man), who had previously helmed the hit vampire comedy Fright Night. The movie focused on Andy, a boy who is given a doll named Chucky by his mom. Unfortunately, the toy has been possessed by the spirit of a dead serial killer Charles Lee Ray, and embarks on a bloody killing spree. The film’s mix of dark humor and inventive slasher thrills helped make it a success and launched a franchise.

Since then there have been a six sequels and a reboot. The series took a more comedic and self-referential tone with the fourth film, Bride of Chucky, and Mancini took over directing duties on the series from the fifth movie, Seed of Chucky. The latest film in the main series to date was 2017’s Cult of Chucky.

In 2019, the remake of Child’s Play was released–this movie was made without Mancini’s involvement, and featured Mark Hamill as Chucky. Mancini was vocal about his dissatisfaction with MGM’s decision to remake the film, arguing that it might damage his ability to make more films in his own series. The movie was a modest success, but no sequel has been announced since then.

Thankfully, the original Chucky is coming back. In early 2019 it was reported that Mancini was developing a new TV show, and the title was subsequently confirmed to be simply Chucky. It’s set to air on both Syfy and USA Network, and with production now underway, here’s everything we know so far about the next appearance from the iconic killer doll….

What’s the premiere date?

Chucky’s premiere date hasn’t been announced yet. However, SyFy has confirmed that the show will arrive in the fall.

Who’s the showrunner?

The Chucky showrunner is Don Mancini. With the exception of the 2019 remake, Mancini has written every movie in the series to date, and directed the last three. Mancini has also written every episode of the show, and will direct the first episode, which is titled “Death by Misadventure.”

What’s the story?

Chucky is set to move the doll’s murderous mayhem to smalltown America. The show’s official synopsis reads, “After a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begin to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets. Meanwhile, the arrival of enemies–and allies–from Chucky’s past threatens to expose the truth behind the killings, as well as the demon doll’s untold origins as a seemingly ordinary child who somehow became this notorious monster.”

Mancini has also stated that the new show will deal with the issues of growing up in the 21st century, as well as delivering some old-school scares.

“It’s a return to the straightforward horror scariness of the first couple of movies involving a whole new group of kids,” he told SyFy Wire. “One thing I think I can probably safely say is that it’s a look at what it means to be a kid today in the 21st century as distinct from what it was like to be a kid in the 1980s when we first showed up on the scene. That’s one thing I think people can look forward to and thinking about, ‘How does Chucky operate in a world where kids spend so much of their time on social media?’ I think the prospect of seeing Chucky sharpen his skills and add to his toolbox, some of the technical goodies that we have at our disposal now, that’s something I think people will find pretty interesting.”

Will Chucky swear?

Chucky is known for his inventively bad language, but while this isn’t an issue for an R-rated movie, things can get a bit trickier on cable TV. Thankfully, Mancini addressed this issue with SyFy early on and reached an agreement about how much swearing will be allowed. “It’s such an intrinsic part of his character, it would just seem wrong if he couldn’t,” Mancini said at last year’s virtual Comic-Con. “Fortunately, before we signed on the dotted line, they confirmed, yes, he can. I think he can drop, like, eight f-bombs per episode, or something like that–eight to ten, something like that–and I think there’s variations depending on what time it airs.” Thank f*** for that.

Who’s coming back?

There are a few familiar names returning to the Child’s Play franchise for the new show. Brad Dourif will be back as the voice of Chucky, having performed the role in every non-reboot movie since the original. He’ll be joined by Jennifer Tilly, who will play Tiffany, Chucky’s equally dangerous bride. It’s not yet known if Tilly will play Tiffany in human form or just voice the doll version, as Tiffany has appeared in both forms in previous movies.

Other returning cast members include Fiona Dourif, Alex Vincent, and Christine Elise McCarthy. Dourif played the character of Nina Pierce in Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky–the latter film ended with Nina being possessed by Chucky. Vincent starred in the first two Child’s Play movies as Andy, the young boy who is first given the possessed doll, and as an adult he reprised the role in Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky. McCarthy played Andy’s foster sister Kyle in Child’s Play 2, and appeared in a brief post-credit cameo in Cult of Chucky.

Who are the new cast members?

In terms of the new cast, the line-up includes:

• Zackary Arthur (Transparent)
• Bjorgvin Arnarson (The Seventh Day)
• Teo Briones (Ratched)
• Lexa Doig (Stargate SG-1)
• Alyvia Alyn Lind (The Young and the Restless)
• Devon Sawa (Final Destination)
• Barbara Alyn Woods (One Tree Hill)

A few details have been revealed about their characters. Arthur is the show’s young lead, and plays Jake Webber, who is a loner mourning the death of his mom. Sawa plays his dad Logan, while Doig plays his new wife Bree, who hides a “dark secret from her family.” Woods plays Mayor Michelle Cross, while her character’s daughter Lexy is played by Woods’s real-life daughter Lind.

Is there a trailer?

Chucky only started production in early April, so we’re yet to see a trailer or proper footage. However, a teaser was released to mark the start of shooting, that showed the doll being constructed and featured Dourif declaring that Chucky “always comes back!”