M3GAN 2.0 Star Unpacks the Unlikely Return of Her Deadly AI

Against all odds, the original M3GAN landed in theaters in January of 2023 and not only earned major box office success, but also scored positive reviews, both of which are rare feats for any horror movie. The titular doll became a viral sensation and understandably earned the green light for a sequel, and while all of the key players from the cast and crew returned, they delivered a more action-packed adventure than a straightforward horror experience. This allowed star Jenna Davis, voice of M3GAN, to explore new attitudes of the doll for M3GAN 2.0. Fans can purchase M3GAN 2.0 Unrated now.

The sequel is described, “The original creative team, including producer James Wan for Atomic Monster, Jason Blum for Blumhouse, and director Gerard Johnstone, reunites to reboot M3GAN for a new mission. When an autonomous android engineered to be the ultimate weapon threatens M3GAN’s beloved Cady, M3GAN convinces her creator, Gemma, to give her a glow-up that makes the original AI diva even deadlier. Armed with wild new upgrades and her same iconic attitude, M3GAN claps back against the wannabe techno-terror in a fierce faceoff to crown the baddest bot built for maximum mayhem.”

ComicBook caught up with Davis to talk about returning to the series, her response to the sequel, and the unexpected requests made by her fans.

ComicBook: M3GAN 2.0 came out a few weeks ago, fans loved the first one, fans loved the second one. Is there a particular line or quote, either from the first movie or the second movie, that when you meet fans, that’s the thing they ask you to say?

Jenna Davis: I’d say for the first film, it’s the, “It’s insane, right?” That’s the first one. And then I think for the second one, it’s ironically been the “hold onto your vaginas” line, which is so funny to me, but that’s been the one I’ve written on people’s hands before. It’s very weird. There’s been so many people that have wanted that line specifically, whether it’s on a piece of their body or a merch piece, it’s just, they love it. It’s really, really fun, I just never thought I’d write that on somebody’s hand in my life.

Especially given that the movie’s only been out for three weeks, for there to already be this standout line that everybody loves and just demands that you write on their body parts.

I know, it’s quite surreal, for sure.

After the first M3GAN came out and people were excited and thinking about, “Is there gonna be a sequel? Is there gonna be another installment?” What were your own hopes for Megan in the sequel and how did the sequel line up with where you saw M3GAN going?

I was really hoping that there would be another villain that was introduced because I’d really love to see M3GAN in that rivalry between her and another character. I’m really happy that the sequel featured that and especially that it was with another AI.

I guess going into it, they mentioned to me there would be some type of rivalry, but I didn’t realize it would be with another AI. I love the fact that it is with another AI because I just think AI is so prevalent in our society now that I feel like it’s something that genuinely could happen, and that is so freaky.

I think, originally, this movie pivoted more action and I didn’t really know where it was going to go. I thought maybe they would lead more horror, but they actually leaned more action, and it was cool because I was able to see M3GAN and also portray her in a new light that I don’t think audiences had seen before. Being able to play her, that was really fun because I got to channel a new side of her, this almost heroic side. We still kept the campiness and everything that people loved about her from the first film, but we definitely pivoted more action and it was fun to explore that side of her for this film.

From the first movie to the second movie, M3GAN has been nebulously floating around in the cloud in some operating systems and some elements of her personality have changed a little bit. Did you find that your vocal inflections changed or was it just in the delivery of what the specific lines were? Or did you even just try to keep it as close to your original performance as possible?

In the first film, in particular, some fans have noticed that her tone drops from the beginning of the film to the end of the film, and that was actually purposeful. Because AI is constantly evolving and is currently getting stronger, we wanted to make sure that we replicated that with M3GAN and specifically in her tone.

So in the second film, we took where we left M3GAN off in the first film, tone-wise, brought that into the second, but wanted to keep her attitude a little bit, we wanted to keep her attitude that she had. Interesting enough, there’s just certain moments … for instance, like the singing. In the first film, we played her a bit more Sesame Street sounding, childish sounding. In the second film, we upgraded her singing and we showed more of her vocal ability, so we had really fun playing with how to evolve her, but how to evolve her in a way that would make sense and correlate to AI, because as AI spends more time with humans, they get smarter.

It’s been two years since the first film, so we were trying to determine, “Okay, well, how can we show that M3GAN has matured a little bit, but not lose what people loved about her?” So I think that was the greatest challenge, but a lot of people do notice that her tones, her inflections, the way that she says things, her relationships, especially with Cady and Gemma, also are evolving within the second. It just continues, but it’s two years later, so we had to find that nice little fine line of how to evolve her and mature her, but not to the point where we’re changing her completely.

In M3GAN 2.0, we hear you as a disembodied voice, we see you in a temporary, smaller artifice, and then we see the upgraded M3GAN model. Do you find that your vocal performance changes based on the body that you’re supposedly set in?

For the second film, in that regard, because she had to move between the different bodies, we wanted to make sure that the inflections and her hopping into each character was a different experience for viewers. What I didn’t want to happen is for people to watch it, she would jump into different bodies and then not realize that this is M3GAN or get bored. I didn’t want that.

I wanted to make sure that every single body, whether it was the Teletubby, whether it was inside of Gemma’s head, whether it was her in her iconic outfit — they got to see different sides of M3GAN in each. Like you mentioned, it was important that each of the tones and everything replicated the original M3GAN, but also really seeing, “Okay, how does she change when she’s in the Teletubby? How does she change when she’s in Gemma’s mind? What are the different inflections and tones that we’re using to showcase M3GAN in new lights, but not changing her a ton?”

You talked about how surprised you were how this movie leaned into the action elements as opposed to the more straightforward horror. When you saw what Allison [Williams] is doing on screen and Ivanna [Sakhno], is part of you at all envious of, “Oh, I wish I got to do some of that action heavy stuff,” or are you thankful of just getting to wear sweatpants to work every day?

Absolutely, but the funny thing is, because most of my recordings for the sequel actually occurred prior to them filming, so I did not see any of the action scenes, really, ’til the end. Primarily, for the first film, I came post production. For this film, I was involved in the beginning, in the middle and the end, which was really fun for me, but because I recorded so much of my dialogue in the beginning before they even started filming, because they wanted to use my voice on set, I didn’t even know what was going to occur on the big screen. For me, it was a big shock.

I didn’t realize all this action was going to occur, but absolutely. I think action is such a fun genre. I think, especially if you can use your physical body to be able to showcase that, that is something that, of course, I’d love to do, but I’m just so grateful to be able to be a part of this film and a part of this franchise and to be able to voice M3GAN. It’s such a joy and I’m so thankful for that.

I would love to pursue something action-wise and would love to be able to do that, but I think [M3GAN performer] Aime [Donald] did such a killer job with her physical body work, and I’m just grateful that I get to voice her. It’s a challenge in itself because I do on-camera acting as well, but it does enable me to really have to use my imagination and really have to place myself in that scenario, which I think has made me a better actor in the grand scheme of things, because I’m not bouncing off of anybody. It’s just me and a microphone. I have to imagine myself in that scenario. So in that regard, I think it’s strengthened my skills of, “Okay, you gotta put yourself here and you don’t really know what it’s going to look like and let’s hope it’s believable and people like it.”

Since M3GAN 2.0 just came out and, much like the first M3GAN, I know fans are going to check it out on home video and the following is going to grow even further. It’s just a matter of time before a M3GAN 3.0. Is there something that you would like to see in a third movie or an opportunity that you would like to get to bring to life in a third M3GAN?

I think I’d love to bring back some of the horror that we had in the first film, because I think there was something so fun about that and how eerie M3GAN was in that first film. I’d love to bring back some more horror elements, but again, I’d love to keep her campiness and her comedy. I’m almost curious if she would interact with other kids, how that would be? I’d love to continue that relationship with Cady, but almost, I wonder, how would she react to other kids Cady’s age? Because she’s so lovely to Cady, but would she be that lovely to other kids? She wasn’t that nice to Brandon in the first film.

I think the sky’s the limit for M3GAN and she can go anywhere, but I would love to bring back some of that horror. I would love to explore the relationship with Cady more because I think there can be some more depth there for sure. I don’t know, I think I’m going to leave that up to Universal and Blumhouse, but I’m hopeful that we get to continue her journey and just see where things go, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

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Fans can purchase M3GAN 2.0 Unrated now.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or Instagram.