It’s become clear that it’s M3GAN’s world and we’re just living in it.
The horror film M3GAN became a true sensation in the past few months. Well, it became a sensation twice, really. The first time was when the film’s initial trailer was released and became a huge viral breakout, launching a ton of memes and tributes to the film’s killer doll and the oh-so memorable dancing she did before showing off her murderous skills. As for the second time, that was when M3GAN was actually released in theaters just as the year began. Unlike other situations where an aspect of a movie goes viral, only for the film itself to fall flat or disappoint at the box office, M3GAN lived up to the hype, scoring strong reviews and becoming an instant hit when it opened in January.
M3GAN arrives on Blu-ray this week and, as with the recently released Digital version, it’s titled M3GAN UNRAT3D VERSION, containing both the PG-13 theatrical cut and an unrated version which restores several F-bombs and moments of blood and gore that were removed to secure that PG-13.
Fandom spoke to both M3GAN screenwriter Akela Cooper and one of the film’s stars, 11-year-old Violet McGraw (“Cady”), about what it was like seeing the trailer take on a life of its own, the appeal of M3GAN as a character (and a doll for kids), the film crossing lines most mainstream horror films won’t, and where they’re hoping to take the already-announced sequel.
A TRAIL3R TO R3M3MB3R
M3GAN wasn’t a Marvel-type film where many were following every piece of news about its production and eagerly awaiting the first trailer and it’s fair to assume most people hadn’t even heard about the movie until the day that first trailer was put online. But once they saw it, it was clear a chord had been struck in a big way.
Akela Cooper recalled that she’d been given a heads up that the trailer was going to be released beforehand, “And then all of a sudden, it was about an hour after the trailer had dropped, and my phone just starts blowing up with all of my friends going, ‘Have you seen this? Have you seen the memes?!’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And then I got on Twitter qnd it was like, ‘Holy s**t!’ It was trending and everyone had already started doing the Beyonce cuts [of M3GAN’s dance]. And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is really nice. People like the trailer! I need to get back to work.’ But then I kept getting notifications and texts from people. It just kept building. And it was way bigger than I thought this was going to be. By the end of the day, obviously, the gay community had made it their thing as well. And it’s like, ‘Wow, this has taken over the zeitgeist in less than a day, pretty much. Okay, we have something here.” She added, “It was a really good Tuesday, I will say that!”
Said Violet McGraw, of the reaction to the trailer, “I was really happy about it. I just loved how viral the dance got on TikTok. I thought it was really funny, because I was not expecting it to go that viral at all. But it was really cool and I loved the trailer so much. After I saw the trailer, I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can’t wait to see the full movie!’ After working on something for so long, it’s so cool to see it all come together at the end.”
3V3RYON3 LOV3S M3GAN
M3GAN’s popularity went beyond the memes though. People seemed to genuinely love what they were seeing of the character, which was cemented when the film opened. M3GAN is the villain of the story to be sure, but like plenty of horror icons before, the audience also was, essentially, rooting for her. So what was it about her that clicked in?
Said McBride, “Maybe her singing got some people and also her dancing was amazing, but I feel like a lot of it, or part of it, is maybe her cool style and the way she talks and the way she’s just so lifelike. M3GAN’s personality in general… I feel like I was kind of cheering on M3GAN maybe a little bit at some parts. I love M3GAN and I can definitely tell that the fans probably love her a lot for those reasons.”
“I think overall, M3GAN is a fun character,” said Cooper. “And you can kind of relate to someone who just says ‘I tried following the rules and that didn’t work. So I’m gonna take matters into my own hands.’ We’ve all had those thoughts but never followed up on them, hopefully. But also, it’s the look, and kudos to [director] Gerard Johnstone and the production team for that design. And obviously, Jenna Davis as the voice, we got incredibly lucky with the casting. It was really smart casting on their part as well to hire an actress who did a voice that sounded like something a preteen would sound like and is trying to be your friend. It’s all of those elements that just came together and had everyone go, ‘Yeah, I want M3GAN in my life.”
Amusingly, despite playing a character who learns the hard way just how dangerous M3GAN could be, McGraw said, “I actually would love my own M3GAN in real life. I think that would be really fun.”
At only 11 years old, Violet McGraw is already quite a horror veteran, given her previous roles in The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep, while her sister, Madeleine McGraw, is a young Blumhouse horror movie star as well, thanks to last year’s The Black Phone. Noted Violet, of how a M3GAN would fit into her life, “I don’t want to replace anyone! I don’t want to replace my sister. Me and my sister are very close and we play with each other. We always hang out a lot, and I would never let her replace any of my family members. But having a M3GAN in real life would be really fun. Like if my sister goes away to travel or something, I can play with M3GAN and do things like that. And me and my sister also love to make our pretend movies and we film them, and M3GAN would be a part of it and we can pretend she’s a real person. I think I would definitely want my own M3GAN.”
SH3’S GOT TH3 LOOK
Cooper was not in New Zealand for the film’s production and hadn’t seen what M3GAN looked like until producer Judson Scott showed her a photo after the film wrapped. As she recalled, “My very first reaction was, ‘Dude, she looks like a deranged sorority girl!’ And he’s like, ‘She does! Isn’t it great?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it is great. Wow!’
Although there were many ways M3GAN was brought to life, including through animatronics, much of the time she was played on set by Amie Donald, a New Zealand child actress and dancer. Said McGraw, “I loved working with Amie so much. We still keep in contact, we still text each other to this day. And she’s so sweet and so talented, and because we’re best friends in real life, it really helped me work with her when she was in the full Megan thing because me and her are best friends and M3GAN and Cady are best friends. It was actually really cool getting to see her all M3GAN’d up. It was weird and a little scary at first because she looked so real. It was a little creepy. But I worked with her for three months, so I definitely got used to it and it was really fun.”
Cooper recalled how she began to feel very confident about how both the movie in general and M3GAN herself were working when she viewed a rough cut for the first time. “Just seeing her in action…. I took my friend. It was a rough cut and usually rough cuts are bad. They’re not good. They’re ‘rough’ for a reason. But halfway through, I look at my friend and go, ‘Am I crazy? Or is this actually really good?’ He’s like, ‘It’s really good.’
Cooper’s last collaboration with M3GAN producer James Wan, Malignant, didn’t make a lot at the box office but quickly became a cult horror favorite. Now excited that M3GAN had turned out so well, Cooper noted, “I thought it was going to be another cult hit, like Malignant. And I was like, ‘Yes, gonna have another cult hit. It’s gonna be great for horror fans. Awesome!’ And then it blew up.”
M3GAN’S MURD3RS
M3GAN crosses a couple of lines most horror movies don’t, as the title character kills both a dog and a child by the end of the film (okay, maybe she didn’t technically kill Cady’s bully, Brandon, but she rips his ear off and makes it clear she intends to kill him before he falls into the road trying to escape her and gets hit by a car).
Cooper said she felt it would really show what a threat M3GAN was to have her do these things, noting, “I do have pets! But yeah, this is a way to show that this movie isn’t f**king around. We are breaking this rule. And then I’m like, ‘Well, if I’ve killed a dog, what’s the other one we’re not supposed to do?’ And a giant pet peeve of mine in horror movies is that when you have children in danger, you just instinctively know [they’re safe]. They’re probably not going to kill them,” noting Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic as one of the occasional exceptions.”
“[Mimic] was kind of an inspiration. ‘I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna make him a bully. He’s a little s**t, but I’m gonna kill a kid.’ That again, the movie is not f**king around. And it worked. When Gerard was on set, he also learned that those were sacred cows that we weren’t supposed to be doing because even the crew was like, ‘All right, I guess we’re gonna kill this kid today?’ So yeah, I don’t know if I’ll do it again in the future… But I could!”
As the bonus features on the Blu-ray show, as a trained dancer, Amie Donald was able to do most of M3GAN’s surprising physical moves herself – not just her famous dancing but also the accompanying flip M3GAN does in the dancing scene. And when it came to the scene where she chases the doomed Brandon, she was able to run on all fours.
In fact, McGraw named the filming of Brandon’s death as one of the highlights of the shoot for her. As far as Donald running on all fours, McGraw said, “It was really cool. Amie is so talented. I could not believe she did that! It was really fun actually filming in the forest and they had a bunch of this fake smoke and it just felt very intense. I was so excited to see how it was going to turn out in theaters. When I was filming it, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is probably going to be one of my favorite scenes, is when she kills the bully.’”
TH3 UNRAT3D R3L3AS3
M3GAN was originally intended to be an R-rated film but when the studio saw the response to the trailer, they decided to change it to a PG-13, having Johnstone and the cast reshoot some of the kills in order to remove some of the gorier and bloodier bits.
Cooper was very happy the unrated version of M3GAN was now part of its home release, allowing all the kills to be seen in their original form, noting one of favorites was the death of Ronny Chieng’s in the unrated version. “I love the David kill. It’s a good kill where she just stabs him with the shredder sword or whatever that thing is. There’s blood all over the elevator and then she slits a dude’s throat.”
Compared to other, notably graphic horror films, Cooper pointed out that the unrated cut of M3GAN wasn’t incredibly gory, but said she felt, “It is effective to show what she’s capable of. When they cut it back to PG-13, I was like, ‘Okay, I get it. I really do get it. But I certainly hope they release an unrated version.’ And they have!”
Cooper added, with a laugh, “I have had a lot of people tell me that they’ve actually watched the unrated version on Peacock with their kids. Like, okay, that is your choice as a parent! You probably would have been able to take them to an R rated screening at a theater but people might have looked at you funny. It’s different in the privacy of your own home.”
S3QU3L TIM3
It was easy to guess M3GAN would get a sequel after it opened so well, but Universal still acted notably fast, officially announcing M3GAN 2.0 would be released in January 2025 just a couple of weeks after the first film opened.
Cooper is once more writing the script, while McGraw and Allison Williams (“Gemma”) are both returning for 2.0. McGraw was delighted she’d be playing Cady again, telling Fandom, “I’m so excited to see what M3GAN does next. I’m totally in for a surprise too, because I don’t know anything yet. I may have a little bit of a theory but yeah, I’m super excited.”
Cooper was keeping quiet on plot details for now, but having now seen the first film resonate in the way it did, she remarked, “When it comes to what audiences liked and responded to, it’s the characters. It’s Gemma. It’s Cady. It’s M3GAN. And so that’s the focus of building the sequel – coming up with a good story that involves the three of them and platforms them and gives them a new story and new character development that’s fun and within the world. That’s what we’re focusing on and that’s what we’re making sure we get right before anything else.”
In the climax of M3GAN, Cady takes control of Gemma’s early robot, Bruce, using it to battle M3GAN. So does McGraw want a rematch? “Oh my gosh, that would be so much fun to come face to face with M3GAN again. I feel like fans would really like that too. But we’ll see what happens!”
M3GAN UNRAT3D VERSION is available now on Digital and Blu-ray.
