The Director of <em>M3GAN 2.0</em> Isn't Afraid of AI

Gerard Johnstone, the New Zealand-born director of 2023's horror-comedy M3GAN and its upcoming follow-up M3GAN 2.0, knows that sequels are damn hard to pull off. How do you top an endlessly-memed cultural sensation in which your leading robot doll belts Sia's "Titanium" in the middle of the proceedings? Or rips a little boy's ear from the side of his head? Well, you give M3GAN her own secret lair, of course.

"She's so bombastic and iconic. It's like, what can be more iconic than having your own lair?" Johnstone told me over Zoom last week. "With her massive power, she would be able to have this thing built. She would order in TaskRabbits. I wanted it to feel like we'd gone into some sort of strange dark fantasy, like some Jeunet and Caro film, which is why it's almost steampunk and the technology is quite antiquated. We had a ton of fun. She's like a Universal monster movie character, in a way."

You'll see M3GAN HQ in its full glory this Friday, June 27, when M3GAN 2.0 releases in theaters nationwide. You'll also recognize inventor Gemma (Allison Williams) and M3GAN's old best friend, Cady (Violet McGraw) from the first film. Their M3GAN-less lives (or so they think) are interrupted by the threat of AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), a new murderous robot. Of course, M3GAN (voiced by Jenna Davis and performed by Amie Donald) returns with seemingly good intentions—as long as Gemma installs a few upgrades. Along the way, we see the once-ruthless killer turn into something of an action hero—but she's still not above busting a move or two, which you can glimpse in the Britney Spears-ified trailer for the film.

So, what's next for Johnstone after M3GAN 2.0? Well, a break from the realm of robots and AI (more on that below), but not necessarily from that of dolls. Earlier this month, Mattel and Universal announced that Johnstone will direct Monster High, a live-action take on the popular line of dolls—which just so happen to be the children of horror villains such as Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and the Yeti.

"I'm always interested in doing something that's a little different," Johnstone says of the project. "And although on paper, the Monster High thing seems very obvious and tangentially related to M3GAN, it's a very unexpected take on this world. It wasn't something that became immediately apparent, but after thinking about the world and the potential of it, I came up with a take that they got me very, very excited. And it's just a chance to play on a really awesome broad canvas with all of these supernatural myths."

Below, Johnstone reveals how he cracked the story of M3GAN 2.0, the real (and now defunct) robot that inspired a hilarious wrinkle in the film, and what had everyone on set calling the film M3GAN Impossible.

So, how did Johnstone crack the story to M3GAN 2.0? "It dawned on me at some point that it’s still a story about parenting because we are the parents of AI," he says.

"Going into a sequel, I'm always cautious about whether or not this is the right thing to do from an artistic point of view. But with this particular story, it was just interesting how technology was changing in a different way. When I was working on the first M3GAN, it was more about iPads, and that was what I was really interested in—how that was affecting the way I was bringing up my kids."

"But then around about the time M3GAN came out, the AI winter was over, and there was this explosion of progress with AI. And it just felt like, Oh, there's not only an audience for this, but there's a continuing cultural conversation. So it felt like whatever we might do would be relevant. I also thought about the character in terms of, She had a moral code and she was justified in many of her actions, at least to herself. She felt justified in what she was doing."

"It dawned on me at some point that it's still a story about parenting because we are the parents of AI. If we do bring this new consciousness into the world—if it does become conscious—that's a whole other theme that you can go down. There is a responsibility on us to train this thing in the right way. And then I started to think about how that would affect Gemma if this was just a happy ending, or if there was something else going on."

"When people say, 'What is this film really about?' my honest answer is it's kind of about AI regulation. And I know that's not sexy, but that's certainly what the theme of the movie really is. But it's still an important one. There is something fun about doing really big, bombastic popcorn entertainment that has a little bit of a hidden message inside."

"The sequel was going to be a redemption story for M3GAN and a deep-dive into whether or not we could train her. But also thinking about Gemma's role in this and trying to make her come to terms with her position as almost M3GAN's mother. It's about parenting, but in a funny way, she's her first child and they're also like estranged divorced parents fighting over custody of this kid. So it's a really unique family triangle in that way."

"AMELIA was one of the first ideas that James [Wan] came to me with before I was actually on board, and I thought AMELIA was just a really great option. That gives me an opportunity to tell the M3GAN redemption story that I think everyone's wanting. Because so many people came up to me after that first film and said, 'I was with her right up until the last minute,' which I thought was really interesting. You don't say that about Pennywise."

"One of the themes that I found quite interesting was this idea that if AI is ever going to achieve consciousness, it may have to do it in a body. Otherwise you'd feel too displaced. And I thought, That could be why M3GAN really feels like she's losing a sense of herself and she's desperate to get back into her body."

"That might have actually been where I came across Moxie, the toy that she gets trapped in. The company's called Embodied. Moxie is this real-life educational toy, but just before we finished the film, unfortunately, the company went out of business. I remember seeing this adorable, cute toy and thinking, Oh, my God, imagine if M3GAN was trapped inside that. That would be hilarious. This thing exists and we had one for a while in the house, and I tried it out with the kids and it was really interesting. It was a different type of AI that I hadn't seen. Essentially, it's an elevated kid's toy, but it could really interact with a child and come up with things on the spot, and reinterpret events in history that a child is interested in—and through it, would make up a story. It was really fascinating."

"I really do think there are things in AI that could be great. To me, it's not AI. It's the intentions of the people behind it. Whether that's nefarious or just incredibly lazy, it's undeniable that it's a really amazing tool."

"My honest answer is it’s kind of about AI regulation," Johnstone says of M3GAN 2.0. "And I know that’s not sexy, but that’s certainly what the theme of the movie really is."

"There are so many things when you're writing a movie like this where you want to justify why M3GAN gets to be a hero—and the audience is going, 'Just hurry up and make her a hero! We know she's capable of being a hero.' You don't need to spend 40 minutes having a moment with every single character where they're just thinking, Wait, is this a good idea? It's just like, yes, it's a great idea. Everyone's here for it. Let's do it. Audiences are great at filling the blanks that way, because when you make a movie normally, you do have everything explained."

"It was interesting, actually, the Mission Impossible thing. Because we take a big cue from Mission Impossible in making M3GAN an action hero right at the same time Mission Impossible introduced the Entity [a faceless AI villain]. It's like we crossed into each other's lanes a little bit in a way. That was quite funny. When filming M3GAN's wingsuit moment, we were always jokingly referring to it as M3GAN Impossible.

"I packed every single idea I had into this movie. I first got the M3GAN] script in 2018, so it's been quite a long road. At this moment, I'm quite keen to take a break. But in terms of how the character can live on, whether it's me or someone else at the helm, I'm rooting for the character to live on. I'll always be very protective of her. I mean, she's hard to kill, to quote a great Steven Seagal movie. I'm sure there'll be more sequels."

"Outside of that, I really don't like repeating myself. I just love movies. I like having a varied diet the same way I like eating in a different restaurant every night. You don't want to have the same meal all the time... As someone that had a limited education, doing these movies gave me a really good understanding of AI and things that I normally wouldn't get into. When I can follow a topic or a film that just feels very interesting is when it's worthy of spending the next two years working on. Or as in the case of this, seven years of my life, you know? You've got to be sure it's the right choice."