M3GAN 2.0 may be veering into "action-comedy territory", but the sequel's director says "the horror DNA is absolutely still there"

M3GAN 2.0 has a new look. The sequel to 2022's sci-fi horror takes a swing in a new direction, with the now-defunct violent, self-aware AI doll being brought back into action with the hopes of taking down a new, hostile robot built using the same technology. This has already drawn comparisons to action flick Terminator, but the movie's director Gerard Johnstone says it has the same "horror DNA" as the original film.

"Are we completely abandoning why people like M3GAN in the first place? No," Johnstone says in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features M3GAN 2.0 on the cover and hits newsstands on Wednesday, May 21.

"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. That’s also something we have fun with. You don’t know if you can actually trust her; you don’t know if everything she says is real. 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 sees Allison Williams return as Gemma, the roboticist who invented M3GAN, along with Violet McGraw as her niece Cady, who M3GAN was designed to protect. Ahsoka's Ivanna Sakhno joins the cast as Amelia, M3GAN's new robotic foe.

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M3GAN 2.0 releases on June 27. 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...