The upcoming reboot of Child’s Play has been mostly mysterious, with the only hints of the film’s content coming in the form of a clever viral marketing strategy touting the high tech Buddi doll from the fictional Kaslan Corporation. But now the movie’s first trailer has dropped, giving us our first look at Buddi, the cast, and the film’s surprising tone.
In the trailer, we are introduced to a very different Child’s Play. Gone is the wisecracking and non-threatening Chucky of old, replaced by a doll that seems to be genuinely menacing. This movie looks dark and scary, something that can’t be said of the original Child’s Play‘s many sequels. And while we don’t hear Buddi the doll speak in the trailer, the trailer’s spooky tone suggests he won’t be cracking a ton of jokes. Curiously, we do hear his owner (Gabriel Bateman) refer to him as “Chucky” at one point in the trailer, suggesting that maybe the spirit of a serial killer named Chucky is inhabiting his Buddi doll? Or maybe Chucky is the name the doll’s AI prefers? As you can see, the trailer doesn’t answer all of the film’s mysteries, but it definitely does a good job of showcasing what looks to be a legitimately terrifying movie about a living doll.
In addition to Bateman, Child’s Play stars Brian Tyree Henry, Tim Matheson, and Aubrey Plaza, who has a particularly bad time in the trailer. It opens in theaters this June 21.
