When it arrives in theaters late next month, M3GAN 2.0 will expand the budding franchise’s genre horizons as the titular homicidal robot squares off with another bloodthirsty machine known as Amelia.
But don’t worry, writer, director, and executive producer Gerard Johnstone promises the sequel still retains the techno-horror vibes of the original. “Are we completely abandoning why people like M3GAN in the first place? No,” he recently told SFX Magazine.
M3GAN 2.0 writer-director Gerard Johnstone teases techno-horror sequel
“Even though we are in action-comedy territory, the horror DNA is absolutely still there, but the character of M3GAN and the way she carries herself is the most important thing,” the filmmaker continued. “That’s also something we have fun with.”
Picking up two years after the first movie, M3GAN 2.0 centers around the rise of a secret military weapon, the aforementioned Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), utilizing the same unstable tech that went into M3GAN. As you might expect, Amelia begins to defy her human creators, prompting roboticist-turned-activist Gemma (Allison Williams) and her 14-year-old niece Cady (Violet McGraw) to revive the doll that nearly killed them both. There’s no other option, but the question remains: can M3GAN (played by a combination of Amie Donald and Jenna Davis) be trusted?
“You don’t know if you can actually trust her; you don’t know if everything she says is real,” Johnstone added during the SFX interview. “You don’t know if she really is self-aware or just an algorithm. M3GAN being a mistress of manipulation is something that you can take into several different stories and genres.”
M3GAN 2.0 is to M3GAN what Terminator 2: Judgement Day was to Terminator
James Wan, who returned to produce the movie with Jason Blum, wanted to follow the rubric of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which turned the villain into a good guy, while introducing an even more formidable antagonist.
“If part of the jokey inspiration for the first M3GAN was that it was supposed to be our Terminator, but with a killer doll instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, then it felt right that the sequel would be Terminator 2: Judgement Day,” he told Empire for the magazine’s summer 2025 issue. “We knew that M3GAN had to meet a nemesis potentially more powerful than she is.”
When does M3GAN 2.0 come out?
M3GAN 2.0 arrives on the big screen Friday, June 27. Tickets are not on sale just yet, but check back with us for regular updates!
Both the PG-13 and unrated cuts of M3GAN are now available to rent and/or purchase from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
