Following their chat earlier in the year when the M3GAN 2.0 trailer was released, Peter Gray and director Gerard Johnstone are speaking once again as the sequel to the acclaimed science fiction horror film M3GAN constructs itself for release.
As the killer doll faces a new threat – a military robot called AMELIA (autonomous military engagement logistics and infiltration android), who becomes self-aware, turns on her creators, and attempts an AI takeover (sound familiar?) – the director spoke about his ambitious shift in tone for the sequel, injecting an important message about technology amongst the action, and keeping M3GAN herself as the icon she came to be in the wake of the original.
I spoke to you when the trailer was released, and you were in the midst of editing at that time. The excitement you had was very evident. You noted how it was segueing out of horror and into the action/thriller space, which you absolutely followed through on. Was that shift always part of the plan? Or did it emerge as the story got more ambitious?
I think both things happen simultaneously. One of the biggest threats we had from the first movie that was unresolved was this idea that M3GAN’s technology was trying to be sold or stolen by one of the employees at the toy company. We didn’t really do anything with that thread. So it just felt like a really great place to jump off for this sequel. It felt logical. If a technology that advanced and formidable existed, the military – whether it’s the US military or another nation’s – would be trying to get their hands on it. As soon as that logic set in, it made me realise that this needs to be more of an action film than a horror film, (but) still an action film that has its origins in horror and nods to the genre which it’s spraying at times.
M3GAN 2.0 is kind the Terminator 2 of the franchise. In your mind, is there a Skynet moment in the future?
(Laughs) Yeah, I think it definitely speaks to a bigger world with a lot of very nefarious (characters) that may have the best intentions. I can’t talk about too much without giving away any spoilers, but it will be interesting to see.
Audiences became very connected to M3GAN, as a character. We almost root for her. Did you feel a responsibility in making her morally grey? Or do you enjoy how unpredictable she is?
When I was working on the first movie, I was always very careful not to have her do anything that felt just malicious or evil. I really felt like I empathised with this character. That she was doing what she was programmed to do, and I never betrayed that. From that point of view, she’s sort of an avenging angel. I remember having people come up to me after the premiere, and they were conflicted, because they were rooting for her to win. You don’t get that with a Freddy or a Jason. They’re the bad guy and you want them to die. Whereas with M3GAN, you kind of don’t want her to die. I felt like everyone wanted to give her a second chance and a redemption story.
I mean, she is an icon. A horror icon. A gay icon in how she’s been embraced by that community. Do you feel a pressure in directing this time around because she’s such a legacy character? Did it change how you approached her?
Not pressure, just an obligation to work as hard as possible. To give audiences the best movie and to present the character in the best way. To utilise all the the things she does as a character that made people fall in love with her in the first place, but in surprising ways. That was whole mission statement going in.
Were there any lines or scenes where you thought, “This is too much”, or did you feel freedom to go bold because you know the audience is already aware of who M3GAN is?
Yeah, if anything, I feel like I know where the line is. And I’m particular of that line. More often than not, it was maybe producers or execs saying, “What if she said this?” And my response would be, “That would be too much. That would be pandering.” She’s a messy, badass bitch, but she doesn’t refer to herself in those terms. So there’s a lot of things that she’ll say in the trailer that she doesn’t actually say in the movie. Marketing having leaned into that, which is totally understandable. It’s about making sure the core demographic know they’re going to be getting all the things that they enjoyed in the first movie.
You mentioned the last time I spoke you about how it was amusing that the first film is so against AI and technology, and yet it’s technology that made M3GAN such a big deal online. When you’re writing the film, are you thinking about how much social commentary you can include without feeling like you’re beating a message over the head?
Yeah, it’s always important to not feel I need to preach. I am coming from a place of ambiguity to a certain degree. I don’t know what the answers are, but I still feel the need to kind of express something. In the case of AI, I am expressing a concern that we do need to think about it more. We’re living in the future right now, but I think more thought needs to be given to the future that our kids are going to inhabit. How do we stop ourselves from creating a useless class? If AI can do everything, what the fuck are we going to do? I really do think that a lot of those conversations are important to have, and it’s awesome that you can have a movie like this, which is very fun, but there’s a bit of medicine in there as well.
On the mention of the future of technology, Jermaine Clement’s character perfectly sums that up in the film. I’d love to know how he came to be. Was he who you immediately envisioned for the character? He’s hilarious. Disgusting, but hilarious!
Yeah, I’ve been wanting to work with Jermaine for a long time. I wish I could say, “Oh, he was the person I had in mind for that role”, but it was actually someone else who said, “What about Jermaine?” I felt like such an idiot. Of course. I have his email, so I called him up and we had dinner, and I was just so delighted that he was keen to do it. He was so complimentary about the first movie. It was a very easy yes from him, and it was the first time we’ve collaborated together. I often get asked if there was any improvisation on this movie, and M3GAN being an animatronic puppet means there’s so much planning that goes into things. With Jermaine, so much of it is improvisation. That’s just what he does. No take is the same as the one before. The only challenge is trying to figure out how much gold can you keep? And how long is the scene going to go, because there’s a 15 minute version of any scene he’s in that’s hilarious.
Megan 2.0 is screening in Australian theatres from June 26th, 2025, before opening in the United States on June 27th.
