M3GAN 2.0 writer and director Gerard Johnstone stopped by IGN Live to discuss the sequel, as he previewed what to expect in the film and debuted a new clip (which is embedded below). Having also directed the 2023 hit that introduced M3GAN, Johnstone spoke with IGN’s Tom Jorgensen about the evolution of the character and the franchise into wild new territory in the sequel.
In the clip, M3GAN is seen with a towel after a fight training session, which begs the question… Why would M3GAN have need of a towel, given she’s a robot and doesn’t sweat?
Johnstone laughed that he is familiar with the question and explained it was because for M3GAN, it’s all about the look and the attitude. “It’s the fun of the character. She’s got a towel or she’s wearing goggles [in a later scene] and I know people will be saying ‘Why does she need this?’ And the answer is because she can. Because she wants to.
Johnston also spoke about the character’s memorable voice, performed by Jenna Davis (matching Amie Donald’s on set movements) with some digital tweaks. If the way she speaks reminds you of GLaDOS, you’re not wrong. As Johnston explained, “Getting her voice right was a really tricky thing to do,” noting they spent a lot of time on getting it right. Ultimately, “The more I described it to [sound designer] PK Hooker, the more he said ‘Oh, you mean the robot from Portal!”
The footage we’ve seen from M3GAN 2.0 seems to be positioning her in a much more heroic role, as she takes on the new threat of AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), a military-created robot using M3GAN’s tech, who is now out of control. So should we consider M3GAN a good guy now?
Johnston noted that when the first M3GAN opened, despite M3GAN outright killing people (and a dog!) during the course of the film, “The amazing thing about the first movie is people thought of her as a hero.”
He explained that M3GAN 2.0 asks “Is she really evil or just doing what she was taught to do? Going back and retreading what we did in the first movie didn’t make any sense. Giving her a redemption arc just made sense. But at the same time, we’re not sure if we can trust her. That’s part of the ongoing mystery of the movie – is this all a long con?”
M3GAN 2.0 is opening in the midst of much more widespread use of (and debate about) AI. Johnston observed that “The theme of the first movie was really about iPads and how iPads are really pervasive and M3GAN is sort of an iPad with legs.” However, they were of course aware M3GAN plays into a different topicality now, and noted that with AI not going anywhere and people deciding “maybe we should try and work with it,” the movie leans into those themes.
Johnston said that while they had a bit more money to play with in M3GAN 2.0, “We probably had the budget of the opening scene of Terminator 2,” purposely evoking a movie he acknowledged M3GAN 2.0 is being compared to.
However, he added, when it came to making use of the money they had, “We punched above our weight. We pushed the action hard and we really went for it. It feels like a crazy, bat shit epic film and I think people are really gonna love it.”
M3GAN 2.0 opens June 27.
