James Wan & Jason Blum Interview: M3GAN

Universal Pictures is starting off 2023 strong with the upcoming horror comedy M3GAN, which arrives in theaters on January 9. Straight from the minds behind the Conjuring universe comes a very different kind of killer doll, an AI whose love for a child can drive it to do anything—regardless of the morality in question. The story came from James Wan with a screenplay by Malignant‘s Akela Cooper. Gerard Johnstone directs M3GAN, which offers up a new horror IP after the recent rush of remakes.

M3GAN stars Allison Williams as Gemma, a robotics engineer whose thankless job at a toy company is to make the next creature for kids to become addicted to. But when she is tasked with taking care of her niece Cady (Violet McGraw, The Haunting of Hill House) after an unspeakable tragedy, Gemma tries to kill two birds with one robot doll named M3gan. Though her incredible new creation can take over an impossible number of childcare tasks, she also doesn’t seem to take orders from her creator very well.

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Screen Rant spoke to Blum and Wan about how M3GAN evolved from the initial pitch to the final iteration, whether they expect to spawn several more films after the first, and what ingredients are required for the secret sauce of Blumhouse horror.

James Wan & Jason Blum Talk M3GAN

Screen Rant: James, how much wilder did M3GAN end up being from the killer doll you first envisioned? And how much of that was due to Akela’s script or Gerard’s directing?

James Wan: We knew going in that we wanted to make a killer doll movie that was different to all the other killer doll movies. Firstly, M3gan isn’t possessed by some supernatural entity nor by some supernatural serial killer. We wanted to lean into something that was more of the real world; something that was more relevant to what’s going on today with all this AI technology that is percolating and that is now coming up to the surface every day in our world.

We felt that it was important to make a movie that was grounded and felt real; like it could happen anytime soon in the world that we’re living in. And I think that was the key to making something that can be scary, because it feels very relevant to the world that we’re living in today. That, I believe, was the mission statement when we dive into it.

It was the mission statement that we set for Akela, who wrote a terrific script; darkly humorous one moment, and then kind of frightening the next moment. And to have Gerard come along, and he did his magic bringing the whole movie to life; bringing Megan to life. That was no small task to bring that doll to life.

Jason, you dressed up as M3gan for Halloween. I hope that this means that we’ll be seeing much more M3GAN in the future. Could this be the beginning of another Insidious?

Jason Blum: I hope so. I mean, we don’t want to put the cart before the horse. But if a lot of people love the movie, I hope we can make more of them.

Akela is bringing us The Nun 2, and we thank her for it. But what about Malignant 2?

James Wan: Let me just say we have a lot of stuff going on right now. Malignant 2 is not necessarily at the top. But we’re definitely keeping Akela [who wrote Malignant] very busy, I can tell you that.

One of the things I love about Blumhouse films in general is that they often toe the line between horror comedy and an emotional heart or philosophical heart at the center. What is your ethos when collaborating on a project?

Jason Blum: When we’re thinking about making them or not, I really think of them as indie movies. I always say to our group, “If you took out the scares, is there a great Sundance drama that exists here?” One of the reasons I love horror is because you can kind of sneak these oddball stories into a mainstream audience. I think that’s really fun about horror, and M3GAN is no exception to that.

That’s what I look for, “Is there a great indie movie here that works without scares?” And that’s often a litmus test that we put scripts through before we decide to make them or not.

About M3GAN

M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a lifelike doll that’s programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by Gemma, a brilliant roboticist, M3GAN can listen, watch and learn as it plays the role of friend and teacher, playmate and protector. When Gemma becomes the unexpected caretaker of her 8-year-old niece, she decides to give the girl an M3GAN prototype, a decision that leads to unimaginable consequences.

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M3GAN arrives in theaters on January 6.