The new year is here, which means the very first premiere Friday of 2023 is upon us with the arrival of Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster’sM3GAN. Fromthe first trailer drop– nay,the first mentionof producerJames Wan’s involvement – fans have been anxiously anticipating the new AI horror’s debut. WhetherM3GANwill be a new genre icon is still yet to be determined, but the camp is undeniable, and according to Wan, she may already be looking at her very own sequel.
From the same writer of 2021’s runaway successMalignant,Akela Cooper,M3GANis a sci-fi horror that starsAllison Williamsas Gemma, a roboticist responsible for the design of a brand-new AI doll intended to be a child’s companion. When Gemma’s sister and brother-in-law are killed in a tragic accident, her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) is put in the engineer’s care. Busy with work, and hoping to alleviate some of Cady’s grief, Gemma gifts her niece with a prototype M3GAN (Amie Donald/Jenna Davis), which stands for Model 3 Generative Android, tasked with protecting Cady. Unfortunately, M3GAN takes this directive to the extreme, willing to kill if she deems it necessary.
Ahead of the movie’s release, Collider’sAlyse Waxwas able to speak to cast and crew members ofM3GAN, including directorGerard Johnstone(Housebound) and Wan. During her interview with Johnstone, when asked what might be his next project, the filmmaker said, “Oh, well, there’s talk of a sequel, but we’ll have to wait and see.” Later, though the producer wouldn’t outright confirm this exciting bite, Wan explained how many of his projects are able to grow into franchises, saying:
“What I will say to that is, in any of my movies, whether it’sThe ConjuringUniverse, orSaw, orMalignant, orM3GANhere, we like to think of a bigger world. For me, it’s about creating the world, and knowing who the characters are, where the story could potentially go, and then building this bigger world, and then going into that and going, “Okay, I’m telling this particular story, but I know other stuff that’s going on.” So if we’re fortunate enough to have sequels, then we have an idea of where we want to go.”
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How Likely Is It We’ll Be SeeingM3GAN 2?
His foresight for world-building may be why Wan is the man responsible for a shift in horror since the early 2000s. His brainchild,Saw(2004), ushered in a mainstream era of gore that gave way to a franchise still cranking outtorture flicks to this day. Before he established himself as a genre mainstay with his haunted-house masterpiece,Insidious, however, Wan’s visual style in 2007’sDead Silencepaved the way for striking franchises likeThe Conjuring. Between Wan’s tendency to plan ahead, and Blumhouse Production’s fairly low-budget filmmaking with an impressive turnaround, aM3GANsequel is a pretty safe bet if the movie plays well this weekend. As fans, the best we can do is fill seats and continue to let the creators know how much we appreciate their movies.
M3GANpirouettes into theaters on August 14, 2025. For more from Wan, here’s what he told usaboutThe Conjuring 4andhis partnership with Blumhouse.
