M3GAN 2.0 will be "bigger and bolder" than the original, promises director: "To do a movie that was very small didn't feel like we would be listening to the audience"

Prepare yourselves because M3GAN 2.0 promises to be an even wilder ride than the first movie due to the extreme audience reaction to M3GAN, says director Gerard Johnstone.

"If the sequel’s bigger and bolder, it’s because of the audience’s reaction to the first," Johnstone says in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features M3GAN 2.0 on the cover and hits newsstands on Wednesday, May 21. "To do a movie that was very small didn’t feel like we would be listening to the audience."

When M3GAN hit screens back in January 2023, Johnstone could not predict how audiences and the internet would react to it. Quickly, the camp horror movie following a killer AI doll became a social media hit, with the movie being memed on a massive scale, and M3GAN herself becoming a Gen Z icon. "I did not think it would become this kind of pop-cultural phenomenon," adds the filmmaker.

Now, two years later, M3GAN has had an upgrade, and she’s ready to give fans exactly what they want. After shutting the evil doll down for trying to murder her, roboticist Gemma has no choice but to power M3GAN back up to fight off an even bigger threat: a new AI doll and military-grade weapon known as Amelia.

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But with new characters and new threats, the story’s scale has increased, which we can already see from M3GAN 2.0’s first trailer. "We always imagined this one being bigger, going from a pretty contained first movie and just broadening the world, the implications – zooming out, basically," says star Allison Williams, who plays Gemma.

"This movie is more epic while also still being more M3GAN, which is so hard to describe – that ineffable mixed genre that blends camp and humour, and horror and comedy, and undertones of real-life implications in terms of people using AI," continues Williams. "But also, any movie with M3GAN in a flight suit, I am seated, as the kids say."

M3GAN 2.0 also stars Violet McGraw as Gemma’s 8-year-old niece Cady, and Ahsoka star Ivanna Sakhno as M3GAN’s new nemesis Amelia.

M3GAN 2.0 releases on June 27, 2025. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which will be available from Wednesday, May 21. Check out the M3GAN 2.0 cover you need to be looking out for on newsstands below...