The murderous doll who captivated pop culture in 2023 is back. And this time she’s not alone.
The original creative team behind the original $180m phenomenon – led by horror titans James Wan for Atomic Monster, Jason Blum for Blumhouse and director Gerard Johnstone – reboot an all-new wild chapter in A.I. mayhem with M3GAN 2.0.
Two years after M3GAN, a marvel of artificial intelligence, went rogue and embarked on a murderous (and impeccably choreographed) rampage and was subsequently destroyed, M3GAN’s creator Gemma (Allison Williams) has become a high-profile author and advocate for government oversight of A.I. Meanwhile, Gemma’s niece Cady (Violet McGraw), now 14, has become a teenager, rebelling against Gemma’s overprotective rules. Unbeknownst to them, the underlying tech for M3GAN has been stolen and misused by a powerful defense contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), the ultimate killer infiltration spy. But as Amelia’s self-awareness increases, she becomes decidedly less interested in taking orders from humans. Or in keeping them around.
With the future of human existence on the line, Gemma realizes that the only option is to resurrect M3GAN (Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis) and give her a few upgrades, making her faster, stronger, and more lethal. As their paths collide, the original A.I bitch is about to meet her match.
As the trailer for M3GAN 2.0 launches – complete with a perfect Britney Spears song inclusion – Peter Gray was fortunate to speak with director Gerard Johnstone about returning for the sequel and if he had any stipulations in that, the conversations around technology he’s exploring here, and what he personally views as a sequel that’s greater than its original.
First of all, I’ll say congratulations on the first M3GAN, which obviously took off in its own way. When making that film, did you have any idea that the character’s quirks and looks, and that dance, would have the cultural impact it did?
No, not at all. I think when I first signed on, I thought it was exciting to make the doll itself. I wanted to make it look more realistic than anything that’s been done before. And what kind of reaction that would provoke. And the dance was just one of many weird ideas to throw in the mix there that we thought would be fun along the way. I never could have expected the response though. The irony, as well, is that it’s a film about the harms of technology and devices, and then the dance blows up on TikTok. It’s a double edged sword.
Before getting to the sequel itself, is there a sequel for you that you personally thinks outdoes its original?
Oh, totally. And that’s always the thing when you’re signing on to do a sequel, you don’t want to feel cynical. Like, “When does this work?” Certainly Terminator 2 is the most obvious one. But also Mad Max. I’m a huge Mad Max fan, and I just find that first film almost unwatchable. But I love the other films. I’m a huge defender of Mad Max 3. I love that film. There are always sequels that can outdo the original, and I think with this film, we were not trying to outdo the first film. I still made the first movie, and I still get to take credit, even if this one sucks. But we tried very hard to not just repeat the first movie. Let’s just take the character into a totally different space, and that was really exciting.
Having watched the trailer, it does feel like this is exactly where a M3GAN sequel should go. Like, yes we’ll make M3GAN an ally, but at the same time you have to keep an eye on her. She talks about hurting Gemma, but not hurting Cady, so it’s clear that killer instinct is still there. And the ‘Oops!…I Did It Again’ inclusion was so great. Were there any ideas utilised here in this film that you had thought of for the first that you didn’t get to conceptualise at the time?
That was the really great thing about getting to do the sequel, because I thought the first film was a very simple story, but it had surprises along the way. You kind of knew where it was going and what was going to happen, and I kind of embraced it to a certain extent. It was like a song. You know where it’s going, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t bopping your head along to it.
With the first film I remember having the thought that if we were going to do something different, it might be really interesting if whoever Kurt was selling these secrets to, if they got involved and these evil, dark forces wanted M3GAN, or tired to steal her. There was a bit of a shadowy corporate take over bit. Then I was thinking about how interesting it could be if, at the end of the film, these people come for M3GAN and they’re going to kill Gemma to get to her, and M3GAN ends up having to defend Gemma and Cady. I thought that was an interesting idea, but with 20 minutes of runway, I couldn’t squeeze it in.
When James (Wan, producer) started talking about the sequel, he thought it would be cool if there was another robot worse than M3GAN. We were totally on the same page with that. Like, this could be a redemption story for M3GAN, but at the same time, it’s one of those things where you’re not sure if her allegiance is to Gemma and Cady, or is it with other A.Is?
With the first film, there were discussions around A.I and the impact of technology on children. With M3GAN 2.0, are there any new social commentaries here? Or is it more just expanding on that as we see social media become this beast of its own at the moment?
For me as a parent, the concern is still kids and devices, and how we are just engineering society to constantly be staring at our phones. But there’s a broader conversation with ChatGPT, which came out after the first film was released. It’s really interesting knowing people are having these weird, uncanny conversations with ChatGPT in the same way Cady was interacting with M3GAN. All these things don’t feel nearly as far-fetched.
At the same time, there was this almost mass fear, like the equivalent of a Satanic Panic, around A.I and everyone was worried about this new thing. So, I did start to think, “Well, I wonder if this film really needs to be more of an exploration of our relationship to A.I and contend with the fact that it’s not going anywhere.”
It’s a parenting allegory as well. M3GAN is really just an extension of everything Gemma taught her to do. In that way, it’s a little bit like parenting. (M3GAN) was just doing what she was told to do, you know? Her whole point of view in this film is that she was programmed to do a certain thing, and does she not uphold that? As a filmmaker who has spent two years on (M3GAN 2.0), I have to believe that there is a point to this and that it sparks a conversation, as well as having a good time.
Going into this one, were you specifically thinking of the horror and humour aspects that the first film balanced? Are you amping up one over the other? Obviously on disc it had a more violent cut, so does that also come into the conversation of what is included for theatrical over what’s released at home?
I do regret not doing an audio commentary (for the first release). I was just so busy promoting the film and finishing it, so that always bugs me that there isn’t one of those editions. It’s not really a “director’s cut”, we just made an R-rated movie and then Universal were like, “What about PG-13?” Here, it was the other way around.
We are in a world where there’s two versions of this movie that exist. And to be honest, right now, in the edit, we’re trying to figure out what we can put in this cut. There are a few things that I think are fine that aren’t fine for the PG-13 rating.
In terms of what genre it is, it has roots in horror, so there’s a little bit of that. But this is definitely more of an action thriller. We are segueing out of the horror a little bit.
M3GAN 2.0 is scheduled for release in Australian theatres on June 26th, 2025.
