Director and producer James Wan is no stranger to spawning horror franchises, and he already has his sights set on further adventures for newest creation, M3GAN. With the likes of Saw, The Conjuring, and Insidious already under his belt, Wan has revealed to Collider that, while always remaining focussed on the project at hand, he can’t help but wonder and plan for what will come next.
“What I will say to that is, in any of my movies, whether it's The Conjuring Universe, or Saw, or Malignant, or M3GAN here, 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.”
Not only does Wan have a plan for where M3GAN 2 will go, but director Gerard Johnstone goes on to confirm that there is already talk of a follow-up. “Oh, well, there's talk of a sequel, but we'll have to wait and see,” the fledgling filmmaker said.
It’s difficult to speculate over what a M3GAN sequel might involve seeing as the first movie has yet to hit screens, but it certainly sounds like James Wan is confident that there will be a lot more to come as he helps launch another movie monster on the world of cinema.
M3GAN is Due to Land in Theaters on Friday
Thankfully, audiences don’t have to wait too much longer to see what kind of terrifying escapades M3GAN gets up to in her first outing. M3GAN begins when Gemma, a brilliant roboticist at a toy company, uses artificial intelligence to develop M3GAN (short for Model 3 Generative Android), a lifelike doll programmed to be a child's greatest companion and a parent's greatest ally. After unexpectedly gaining custody of her recently orphaned niece, Cady, when the child's parents die in a car accident, Gemma enlists the help of the M3GAN prototype, a decision that has horrific consequences when the doll becomes self-aware and overprotective of Cady, leading her to kill and harm anyone that gets in her way.
Directed by Gerard Johnstone (Housebound, The New Legends of Monkey) from a screenplay by Akela Cooper and a story by Cooper and James Wan, M3GAN stars Allison Williams as Gemma, a roboticist and the inventor of M3GAN; Violet McGraw as Cady, Gemma's orphaned niece and soon-to-be M3GAN’s best friend; and Amie Donald as the titular M3GAN. The rest of the cast includes Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Arlo Green, Lori Dungey, and Jenna Davis as the voice of M3GAN.
M3GAN is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on January 6, 2023, courtesy of Universal Pictures.