Did 'Seed of Chucky' Introduce This 'Cult of Chucky' Idea?

Released in 2004, Seed of Chucky is often considered the worst film in the Chucky franchise. Part of that is due to its increased reliance on comedy over horror. And while the next installment, Curse of Chucky, could have easily done the typical route of retconning the previous film (and more) out of continuity, it actually acknowledged that all previous films still happened. This is very refreshing when we have Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Terminator sequels that, rather than trying to make everything that came before work, would rather take the easy way out and say some of it didn't happen.

Curse of Chucky was eventually followed by Cult of Chucky, which added something to the supernatural lore of the franchise: Chucky could split his soul, allowing him to take control of multiple doll bodies as well as at least one human body at a time. This thread has more recently continued into the Chucky TV series. While it seemed new when Cult initially came out in 2017, upon reflection, there is a question of whether we have actually seen this sort of thing before in the franchise.

Some like to forget Seed of Chucky, but others, whether they like the film or not, remember the broad strokes and how it ends. In the film, we get to know Chucky and Tiffany's doll child, referred to as Glen or Glenda since they go back and forth on what gender their child may be. Glen/Glenda goes back and forth between being the pacifist Glen and the killer Glenda. Something like a split personality.

In the end, actress Jennifer Tilly gives birth to twin babies, a boy and a girl. (Chucky is the biological father, but I'd rather not recap how it all happens. If you've seen the film, then you know.) Before any of the dolls can put their souls within any of the humans present, Tiffany suggests that perhaps Glen/Glenda does not have to choose just one of the babies to possess. (This is a dark story, when you really think about it, even if it is under a comedic guise.) Long story short, Chucky decides he wants to remain a doll, so Tiffany leaves him, and then Chucky kills the Tiffany doll, though not before she has swapped places with Jennifer Tilly. Chucky's child kills him for revenge.

After a five-year timeskip, we see that the daughter, Glenda, has killer instincts, as the Glen/Glenda doll displayed when presenting themselves as Glenda earlier in the film. We also see that Glen is an innocent boy. So it appears that the ritual to put Glen/Glenda in separate in two separate bodies was a success. So how might this connect to Cult of Chucky?

It is possible that some may have believed that the Glen/Glenda doll was two souls trapped in one vessel. But actually, it seems more likely that Glen/Glenda was one soul to begin with, and then their soul was somehow split so that they could take possession of both of the babies.

Further evidence of this may lie in Chucky's dialogue in the TV series. In the second episode, "Give Me Something Good to Eat," he tells Jake, "I have a queer kid... Gender fluid." A striking thing about this is he only mentions one child. When Chucky takes possession of multiple dolls and people in Cult and the TV series, he is still one person, but with his soul divided into different places. The same applies to Glen/Glenda, who was always one person and then divided their soul to be both a boy and a girl. A rather unconventional way of presenting gender fluidity.

Of course, this does beg the question: If Tiffany (and I suppose Chucky later on) knew that Glen/Glenda's soul could be divided between two beings, why did it take so long for Chucky to attempt something on the scale that he does in Cult of Chucky? The timeskip at the end of Seed places Chucky's return to the Tillys in 2009. Curse of Chucky takes place in 2013, and before the credits, he takes possession of Alice Pierce. In a post-credit scene set six months later, the same Chucky doll (stitches and all) mails himself to Andy Barclay. In Cult, set four years later, it sounds as though Alice's death is recent, given Tiffany's words to Nica and later to Chucky-possessed Nica. So clearly, Chucky's soul has been split for a while even before this film. This is also supported by him saying, "A few years ago, I came across this groovy new spell on voodoofordummies.com that changed everything."

But how do we reconcile this comment with him already knowing about Glen and Glenda? Well, we never see the spell that puts Glen and Glenda in the babies onscreen, so there is a bit more that could be explained. It is possible that Glen/Glenda was able to have their soul split somehow and it happened on a fluke, without Tiffany knowing/memorizing all the proper steps that were done to make it happen. Then later on, the steps were made public, compiled conveniently on voodoofordummies.com, thus making it easier for Chucky and Tiffany to split their souls, with all the information compiled. As for why it took so long for Chucky to try enacting a plan to make an army of Chuckys... I guess we could boil that down to completion anxiety?

Of course, this is all guesswork, and nothing is official until it is revealed by the franchise itself. Hopefully, more will become clear in the future. There is still much of the Chucky lore that needs to be explained, so we shall see whether season 2 of the TV series provides any answers.