'M3GAN 2.0' Gets a Pushed-Back Release Date

M3GAN

Last winter, the smart, campy techo-horror movie M3GAN surpassed expectations both critically and commercially, boasting a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes while raking in close to $200 million worldwide (and sparking a viral TikTok dance challenge). Allison Williams stars as a roboticist for a toy company, Gemma, who is developing a groundbreaking lifelike doll named M3GAN, which is programmed to be “a child’s greatest companion”. When she unexpectedly becomes the guardian of her newly orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw), she sees an ideal opportunity to test out the M3GAN prototype—but soon comes to regret that decision.

Aside from being wildly entertaining, the movie was perfectly timed to tap into mounting fears about the rise of A.I., and its climax left viewers wanting more. Thankfully, less than two weeks after its release, Universal confirmed that a sequel was in the works. Here’s what we know so far about M3GAN 2, including release date and cast.

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What happens at the end of M3GAN?

Having been programmed to be the very best friend a girl could ever want, M3GAN inevitably takes things a little too far. Though she’s initially thrilled by how well her invention is working, Gemma soon begins to realize that she has created a monster in M3GAN, who is terrifyingly over-protective of Cady to the point of murdering anyone who she perceives as a threat.

In a bid to become the sole parental figure to Cady, M3GAN ultimately tries to kill Gemma, but Cady intervenes and the pair are able to stop M3GAN by stabbing her in the head with a screwdriver, seemingly destroying her central processing unit. But in the very final shot of the movie, the camera pans to Gemma’s Alexa-esque AI home device as it turns on by itself, emitting an eerie light.

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What is M3GAN 2.0 about?

Plot details for M3GAN 2 haven’t been revealed yet, but that final scene gives us some sense of what’s to come. This is never spelled out, but it’s strongly implied that although M3GAN’s physical body has been destroyed, her AI soul has somehow been transposed into the system which controls Gemma’s entire house. What could go wrong?

In an interview with Decider, returning writer Akela Cooper was tight-lipped about the sequel’s plot, and specifically whether that final shot means that M3GAN herself is still alive. “It could be,” she said. “That is what I can say, insofar as that ending and going into the sequel. We always wanted that “wink-wink, nudge-nudge,” horror movie ending. M3GAN had been affecting the house and affecting Elsie [the home AI system] so that is a very good question.” She added that “we do kind of know where we’re going with the sequel right now, but it’s still a work in progress… first things first, we’re working on character, character development, and getting that story straight and correct.”

More recently, producer James Wan shared a little more information about the sequel’s focus in an interview with Empire magazine (via Syfy): “The first film came just at the right time [when concerns about AI were mounting], and we’re definitely leaning into that on the next one. We’re exploring the AI universe even further.”

Who is directing M3GAN 2.0?

Director Gerard Johnstone will return for the sequel. "There's a lot of ideas we didn't get to fit into that first movie,” he told 1News, “and I would at least hint that for people that loved the movie but there's stuff they wanted to see more of, that's the stuff we would want to explore more if we are lucky enough to make a second film.”

What is the release date for M3GAN 2.0?

M3GAN 2 will be released in theaters in the US on May 16, 2025. The sequel was originally slated for a January 2025 release, which would fall in line with the release of the original in January 2023, but Universal recently announced that it had pushed back the date by four months.

Who is cast in M3GAN 2.0?

Alison Williams

Williams will return in the lead role of Gemma, and will also serve as a producer as she did on the first movie.

“I think the idea of people wanting more and being able to deliver is so wonderful,” Williams said when Variety asked about a sequel. “It’s gonna be really fun… to figure out how we can zig and zag that around the expectations of what it would be and try to keep things surprising while also delivering on the reasons that people want more in the first place.”

Violet McGraw

The only other confirmed cast member for M3GAN 2 so far is McGraw, who will reprise the role of Cady.

Is there a trailer for M3GAN 2.0?

Filming hasn’t yet begun on M3GAN 2, so there’s no trailer available for now.

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