M3GAN: The director jokingly wants to see the AI doll in a Fast & Furious movie

Last Updated on March 31, 2023

One of the surprise breakout hits of the year was the fun horror flick M3GAN, which puts a modern twist on a Child’s Play-esque concept with the doll having AI. Promotion of the movie went viral thanks in part to an eerie sequence of the M3GAN doll doing a TikTok dance down a hallway in an intimidating fashion. Not only did the movie score as a big hit for a modest-budgeted studio film, collecting $173.5 million at the box office, but there is now a sequel in development from the film’s director, Gerard Johnstone, that will be titled M3GAN 2.0.

Johnstone was gracious enough to sit with us for an interview, which will be dropping soon. However, here are some good tidbits he’s revealed to us to whet your appetite until then.

As M3GAN inevitably draws comparisons to Child’s Play, it was asked if there would be a M3GAN vs. Chucky film in the future, to which Johnstone joked, “I’m sure it’s inevitable, but I think that the films are so different, you know the tone of the films are different enough that, I don’t know, I’d kind of rather see M3GAN show up in one of the Fast and Furious movies.” It’s not impossible. Both franchises are Universal movies, and James Wan directed the seventh entry, Furious 7.

The studio decided to reshoot some of the film in order to tone it down and appeal to a wider audience — as they saw a big market for teens. This is especially evident with the viral dance scene. Johnstone was pleasantly surprised by the reception, “And I had heard that they really loved the dancing and that was something that was a big deal for them, and I was like ‘Really? Wow.’…And obviously they knew about the whole TikTok thing, I didn’t, I didn’t ‘get it’.”

He also revealed that the M3GAN actress, Amie Donald, was gifted both the M3GAN mask, as well as the paperweight blade by the end of filming. In fact, it sounds like Donald has quite the twisted sense of humor, as the child actress pranked her mother with the props, standing at the edge of her bed in the middle of the night, brandishing them.

M3GAN was a film that was made with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, as it was written by James Wan and Akela Cooper, who had also penned the wildly and creatively absurd Malignant. The director, Johnstone, also has off-beat credits that include a New Zealand horror-comedy called Housebound.

Stay tuned for our full interview with Johnstone!