What would be a Avengers-level event defined in the M3GAN what does the universe look like? Star Allison Williams and director Gerard Johnstone normally don’t have to think about such questions, except now they’ve stumbled upon their own cinematic universe based on the viral killer robot that kills in multiple ways. More than two years after the 2022 film Blumhouse became an instant pop culture feminist, fueled by a dance adapted to TikTokthe duo is preparing to deliver a sequel next year with M3GAN2.0while it is a separate erotic thriller spin-off, SOULM8TEabout a deranged sex robot, is also in the works.
This is the new MCU, aka M3GAN Cinematic Universe. So, back to the question at hand…
“I’m terrified to think what that would mean. What is the equivalent of Thanos? Williams, who also served as executive producer on M3GAN and is now more involved as a producer on the sequel, responds to Weekly Entertainment. “Let’s keep going as long as they’re interesting and everyone has their own story to tell.”
“Jokingly, whenever the producers asked me what I thought about a sequel, I always said M3GAN3000” says Johnstone. “M3GAN in a Mad Max universe. I would absolutely queue up to see this.
Geoffrey Short/Universal Pictures
It all started when the filmmaker James Wan (The Conjuring, Insidious) and the folks at his house of horrors, production company Atomic Monster, cooked up the idea for a killer doll movie. They brought in Akela Cooper, the brilliantly twisted mind behind this campy puzzle. Cleverto work on the script and Johnstone, the New Zealand horror-comedy director Entrusted to the houseat the bar. Their monstrous creation was the story of how Gemma (Williams), a roboticist at a high-tech toy company, creates M3GAN, a life-size AI-powered doll designed to be the child’s ultimate companion, while agreeing to be a guardian to his recently orphaned niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). When M3GAN bonds a little too closely with Cady, dysfunction and sensitivity lead to an entertaining catastrophe.
Williams knew they had something on their hands when the first trailer came out. M3GAN – brought to screen through a combination of robotics, visual effects, physical performance from Amie Donald and vocal performance from Jenna Davis – attacks a guy with the blade of a letter opener in this first teaser , but first she does a little dance routine that has become so popular online that even the boss of Blumhouse, Jason Blumdressed up as M3GAN for Halloween and the movie premiere. To quote Charlie XCX, she had one hell of a year as a kid. “They understood that she was a canon type, an intense alpha girl, like a Marni,” Williams says, referring to her character in the HBO series. Girls. “Then when the movie came out, watching people have fun with it and enjoy the experience in the theater, channeling it, using it in memes, learning the dance is just the best ever.”
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For Johnstone, it felt like a mixed blessing. “The movie is about the dangers of technology and kids using their iPads, and there she was, blowing up on TikTok,” he says.
Specifically, the character of M3GAN has become a pop culture icon within the queer community, largely because of the overt campiness infused into the horror. Saturday evening live same fact a sketch Or Bowen Yang said to the guest host Place Aubreydressed as an AI doll, to “fix it, mom!” » while Williams makes an appearance. “Every moment when culture embraced M3GAN “just helped to reinforce that this oddly-toned horror film, with lots of humor and self-awareness from this Kiwi director, was on the right track,” comments Williams.
Is it a coincidence that M3GAN2.0which is also the name of this one SNL sketch, will now be released during LGBTQ Pride Month next year, June 27, 2025? “I can neither confirm nor deny, but I know these things are often taken into consideration,” Williams responds. “But I don’t really know the answer to that question.”
Plot details on the sequel are undoubtedly being heavily kept under lock and key on an encrypted server, but Williams and Johnstone acknowledge how they’re having a little more fun, knowing they were on to something from the first go-round . Johnstone mentions that Wan had “a kernel of an idea” for a sequel, but the concept largely stemmed from the director’s earlier plans. “I actually had a different idea for the end of M3GANwhich would have been interesting but probably not as satisfying,” he says. “The advantage of making a sequel is that I had the chance to develop this idea into a longer story. James’ idea fit this very well. So it was just a really good marriage of those two things.
Geoffrey Short/Universal Pictures
Johnstone arrived at the team’s first brainstorming session with his own pseudo-PowerPoint presentation to determine exactly what worked with M3GAN. Williams remembers these discussions being even broader, getting into the nitty-gritty of what makes successful sequels in general. “The answer is that it’s really difficult because the fan service is very tempting,” she says. “It’s so tempting to tackle the trickiest part the first time and just drive it into the ground the second time.”
They focused on Gemma as a reluctant parent, the monster element of Frankenstein, and the real-world parallels around AI. “It was really important that the sequel was a response to what people really loved about the first film, but also to this evolving conversation and We’re afraid of how AI is changing us, changing our children and changing society,” says Johnstone. “In a way, M3GAN is a personification of all these fears.” He refuses to go into details M3GAN2.0but note: “It’s very ambitious. I felt the story should be bigger and increase in scale and scope, but it’s still a tiny budget (compared to) the scale of the Marvel movie.
At the very least, as EW’s exclusive first photos show, M3GAN is finding a way to come back after seemingly meeting his end in the first film. As Williams says, “We couldn’t leave our daughter out of this.” Johnstone confirms that the robot is still very obsessed with Cady, who seems to be taking a cue from her aunt in working on robotics. M3GAN will also benefit from new looks. “She’s a living doll,” notes Johnstone, “and part of the fun of having a doll is being able to dress up.” We had a few looks in the first movie, but I wanted 10 different looks for M3GAN. For the future, I felt like it was a chance to do it.
Williams is also not someone you can trick into revealing the details of the story. Even when she starts to get into dangerous territory, she always catches herself. “The producer locks the actor into my system,” she says. “It feels like a divisive situation at this point.” The star also divides her attention between M3GAN2.0 And SOULM8TE. EW can exclusively confirm that Williams is involved as an executive producer on the Kate Dolan-directed spinoff (You are not my mother) and written by Rafael Jordan (Rescue Marines), based on a story by Wan and Ingrid Bisu (Clever).
Set in the same universe, it is about a man who acquires an android to help him deal with the loss of his wife, only for this robot to pull a Fatal attraction. SOULM8TE filmed around the same time they filmed M3GAN2.0 with a cast featuring Lily Sullivan (Rise of the Evil Dead), David Rysdahl (No way out), and Claudia Doumit (The boys). Williams was watching all the dailies as she pulled double duty as the lead star of M3GAN2.0. “To go from a sort of family horror film, if such a genre exists, to a sort of psychosexual thriller, it’s pretty brilliant,” she notes.
Johnstone is so involved in the creation M3GAN2.0 that he doesn’t pay too much attention to what’s going on SOULM8TE. “It’s obviously extremely flattering and satisfying to be involved in something that could spawn its own little universe,” he says. “Universal Pictures had its own universe with all of its monster movie characters, so it’s not uncommon. It’s probably also the fact that we live in an age where AI is so widespread. There are so many stories to tell.
Now let’s see M3GAN and SOULM8TE fight Thanos.