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Everyone deserves a second chance — including M3GAN.
In the new horror sequel, the AI doll is rebuilt and turns to the good side as she teams up with Gemma (Allison Williams) and Cady (Violet McGraw) to defeat a humanoid military robot named AMELIA.
Director Gerard Johnstone exclusively told The Post that he was “thrilled” about the decision to give M3GAN a redemption arc in “M3GAN 2.0.”
“Before I signed on, James Wan, as the producer of the movie, and he sort of created the concept and the character of M3GAN the first time around, he had the idea of M3GAN going up against another doll,” Johnstone explained.
“And I was thrilled with that idea because, over the course of making the first movie, I had learned to really empathize with her as a character and try to understand things from her point of view.”
The filmmaker continued, “I kind of felt like, in a funny way, she was a little bit shortchanged, and it was interesting getting audience reactions that kind of said, ‘We were on M3GAN’s side right up until the very last minute of the movie.’ And doing another story gave me an opportunity to give her a redemption arc, which I thought would be somewhat unexpected, but also kind of obvious in a way.”
“People love her so much, they wanna see her get her own story,” Johnstone added.
In hindsight, Johnstone said he believes the audience was always on M3GAN’s side, so he knew they’d appreciate her role as a hero in the sequel.
“It was almost like I was the last one to the party in some respects that they had already decided she was a hero and I just really needed to give them the movie that would solidify that,” he shared.
Johnstone also confirmed that he never planned to make M3GAN a villain again.
“I just wanted the audience to not be sure,” he said. “I thought this will be more satisfying if the audience is kind of not sure if they can trust M3GAN or not. And then that way, it plays to our own fears about AI. We kind of just have this deep-seated mistrust of it. And I thought this would be a really fun opportunity if we realized that a lot of Gemma’s own kind of worst instincts come to bear in that moment.”
Taking a different storytelling approach in the sequel was a freeing experience for Johnstone, he admitted.
“In an age where the world’s so divided and no one’s really listening to each other and we’re all in our little echo chambers, it felt nice to tell a story where we could kind of come together with something that we felt so much fear of and if we could get to understand this thing a little bit more,” he explained.
“Or if Gemma could understand things from M3GAN’s perspective, how she might evolve as a result of that,” Johnstone added. “That’s the reason why do these movies, as fun as they are, there is substance behind them and that’s really important as well.”
The evolution of Gemma and Cady’s relationship was also a poignant part of the sequel for Johnstone.
“I think that as a parent myself, it’s kind of reflective of the fact that as a parent, your job’s never done. Parenting is something you have to keep working at, and you will fail from time to time,” he said. “But that’s the territory of the job.”
“It’s also understanding that they don’t ever stay the same age,” Johnstone continued. “Like Violet is not that same kind of vulnerable 9-year-old girl anymore. Now she’s 12, she’s almost a teenager, and she’s developing her own personality and her own ideas on things. And again, that just presents another challenge for Gemma and for M3GAN as well.”
“M3GAN 2.0” is in theaters now.
English (US)