Why Seed Of Chucky Promos Had To Include A Britney Spears Disclaimer

Seed of Chucky, the off-the-wall fifth installment of Don Mancini’s Child’s Play franchise, was forced to include a special disclaimer about pop superstar Britney Spears due to one particularly hilarious scene in the film.

As it completely shifted the franchise to horror-comedy, Seed of Chucky prominently introduced a new member into Chucky’s sadistic little killer doll family. Glen, who also goes by Glenda, is the son of Chucky (Brad Dourif) and Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), and tries to reunite with his infamous parents after the events of Bride of Chucky, to which the film is meant as a direct sequel. Seed of Chucky also is prominent for being creator Don Mancini’s directorial debut, and – while it got mixed reviews from critics and audiences that shifted toward the negative – embraced the franchise in original ways that pushed boundaries and skillfully adapted its fully realized dark comedy roots.

Jokes surrounding Chucky’s “crush” on Britney Spears came to a head in the film, and required Seed of Chucky’s marketing and legal team to think quickly on their feet so they wouldn’t end up with trouble beyond the ire of Spears’ loyal fanbase.

Seed Of Chucky Killed A Britney Spears Lookalike

In Seed of Chucky, Britney Spears (played by a lookalike actress, Nadia Dina Ariqat) makes a brief appearance in one scene. After Chucky decides to take his son, Glen, out for a boys’ night out, he gets behind the wheel of a massive Hummer en route to paint the town red – likely literally – when they come across an unexpected wrench in their plans. Britney Spears, who is seen driving a convertible with the distinctive license plate, BRITNEY1, speeds around them with her music playing and cuts them off. Britney then proceeds to flip them off. Chucky is, of course, angered by this and decides to take his revenge by telling Glen to speed up the vehicle (Glen is operating the pedals while Chucky drives) so he can try to run Britney off the road. He’s successful and, after her car speeds off the road and goes up in a fiery explosion, Chucky cackles maniacally and utters the iconic line, “oops, I did it again!“

This scene was included in promotional spots for the film, most specifically Seed of Chucky‘s trailer, but the distributing company associated with the film, Focus Features, made the decision to significantly cut the scene down and add a disclaimer. The disclaimer that ran with the promotional spot, which was altered to only show a brief glimpse of Ariqat as Spears, stated: “Britney Spears does not appear in this film.” The disclaimer was put in place in case fans – or the pop star herself – took offense to her likeness being used. It was also done to avoid any confusion as, in a brief glimpse, Ariqat is quite convincing as Spears. According to an article done by MTV in 2004, the back-and-forth between Focus Features and Spears’ management seemed positive, with one of Spears’ spokespeople even stating that the gesture to add the disclaimer was “sweet“.

Focus extended an additional olive branch and said the real Britney Spears could screen the movie any time she wished. Perhaps the killer doll would be gentler if the real Britney ever decided to make an appearance in a future Child’s Play installment.

About The Author

Jack Wilhelmi
(581 Articles Published)

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Jack Wilhelmi is the horror features editor at Screen Rant, and has been with the site since 2019. He is a lifelong fan of the horror genre, and loves any excuse to discuss genre-related topics, since none of his friends dare challenge him in horror trivia. He has been published on the independent horror blog Morbidly Beautiful, and has covered major genre film festivals such as Cinepocalypse in Chicago. He has also served as a judge for the Ax Wound Film Festival.

In his free time, he is a devoted dog dad to a high-spirited rescue pup named Peter Quill and enjoys volunteering with various animal rescue organizations. Jack likes to travel and explore dark tourism-related and other various haunted locations. He enjoys studying psychology, the paranormal, and will watch literally any schlocky B-movie on the planet for a laugh.

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