When it was announced that MGM and Orion were remaking Child’s Play, at the same time creator Don Mancini and Universal have been keeping the original franchise alive with fresh new sequels and an upcoming TV series, many horror fans (including yours truly) didn’t exactly receive the news in the warmest of ways. Mind you, it’s not that I personally have ever taken issue with any remake of a classic, beloved film, but in the case of Child’s Play, I can’t help but find it incredibly disrespectful to Mancini and the work he has devoted much of his career to.

Initially, Mancini responded with a simple, fun jab at the remake, but in a new chat with Mick Garris on the podcast Post Mortem, he digs a little deeper into his feelings on the matter.

“MGM retained the rights to the first movie, so they’re rebooting that,” Mancini explained. “They asked [producer] David Kirschner and I if we wanted to be executive producers. We said no thank you, because we have our ongoing thriving business with Chucky. Obviously my feelings were hurt. Ya know, I had just done two movies… forgive me if I sound defensive, [they] were both at 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. Even though they didn’t get theatrical releases, they were well regarded. And I did create the character and nurture the franchise for three fucking decades.”

Mancini continued, “So when someone says, ‘Oh yeah, we would love to have your name on the film’… it was hard not to feel like I was being patronized. They just wanted our approval. Which I strenuously denied them. I hesitate to say too much about it because I don’t want to sound like I’m belly-aching too much. But the producers of that movie are the producers of IT (2017). How would they feel if there was some legal loophole that allowed David Kirschner and I to swoop in and make our own IT movie with our own version of Pennywise and say, ‘Hey guys, we would love to put your names on it.’ I imagine they wouldn’t like it. That’s how I feel.”

“The people who are making that movie, they don’t know how that’s going to affect my livelihood. It’s not just a paycheck. It’s very personal. MGM’s screwing with that… potentially.”

In the same chat with Garris, Mancini also talks about the upcoming Child’s Play TV series, which will again deliver a fresh new twist on the franchise. So be sure to give it a listen!