Nearly 35 years after the release of Child’s Play, the creator of the infamous Chucky, Don Mancini, is sharing surprising details about the inspiration behind the killer doll. 

While speaking to Yahoo! Entertainment, Mancini stated that the inspiration for Chucky came right after Gremlins came out in 1984. “I realized with [Gremlins] that animatronics had gotten to the point thatchy were so sophisticated that anything you could write, puppeteers could do in terms of nuance, facial expressions, mouth synchronization of dialogue, that sort of thing,” he explained. 

The Chucky creator also said while creating Chucky that his impulse was to write a dark satire about how marketing affects children. “My dad worked in marketing and advertising when I was growing up,” Mancini shared. “And so I was exposed to that world a lot. And I saw from a very early age how cynical it is, the notion of creating products and getting people to buy things they don’t need.”

Mancini then revealed children were referred to as “consumer trainees” by marketers. This term would be used in Child’s Play III. He recalled knowing, in the wake of Gremlins, filmmakers could do something new. The Cabbage Patch doll craze in the mid-‘80s also had some impact in terms of inspiration. “So [with] all of these impulses about animatronics, and a nightmarish look at marketing to children, and the Cabbage Patch doll craze, out came Chucky.”

‘Chucky’ Creator Admits to Having ‘Mixed Feelings’ About Britney Spears Lookalike Being Killed By the Evil Doll 

Meanwhile, Mancini stated he had some “mixed feelings” when it came to Chucky murdered Britney Spears lookalike Nadia Dina Ariqat in a “fake” cameo during the 2004’s Seed of Chucky. 

Chucky and his son Glen (played by Billy Boyd) run down the Spears lookalike in a road-raged incident. The evil doll sent the pop singer off a nearby cliff and her vehicle is engulfed in an explosion. However, due to Spears’ struggles over the years, Mancini has some second thoughts about the scene.

“Because the story took place in Hollywood, I just wanted a celebrity to play themselves, [and] the initial idea was Chucky to kill them,” Mancini explained. He further noted that the production thought about Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. But they may have said no to the cameo. “But someone brought to our attention, this young actress Nadia Dina Ariqat. She was the spitting image of Britney Spears. I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s hilarious. Chucky will run her off the road or something.’”

Mancini admitted that he was not aware of the emotional issues that Spears was facing at the time. “I can’t imagine Britney Spears ever lost any sleep over this if she’s even aware of it,” he added. “But if I were a celebrity, I would want to be killed by Chucky. I think that that would be fun.”