Arturo Hilario
El Observador
The killer robot dancing queen is back – with upgrades. The mechanical menace that captivated audiences in 2023’s M3GAN returns in M3GAN 2.0, which brings back the surviving characters of the genre-mash up of horror, comedy, sci-fi and action to tell a new story with a new technological threat to face.
While the first film focused in on the dangers of technology within the world of children’s toys and the role of parenting, for this sequel the filmmakers, including returning writer-director Gerard Johnstone, opted to dissect the newest tech craze, artificial intelligence and products like Chat-GPT along with the ethics behind these technologies.
In the ending of the original film, M3gan is defeated by its creator Gemma (Allison Williams) and her young niece Cady (Violet McGraw), but there’s a hint that while the child-sized android M3gan was inhabiting was destroyed, her consciousness was installed into another tech product, Gemma’s smart-home speaker assistant.
M3gan returns with upgrades in M3GAN 2.0, directed by Gerard Johnstone. Photo Credit: Universal Pictures
This time around, leaked blueprints for M3gan end up in the hands of a military defense contractor which creates a military-grade A.I. robot designed specifically to kill and destroy. This machine is called Amelia, and it seems that the only antidote to this new tech is the old one. Thus the anti-hero M3gan is begrudgingly brought back and upgraded to assist her in fighting off this new threat, creating a situation that might work out for humanity, or might not.
Tokenism is not something I ever want to be. I don’t want my character to ever be the token person of color. I want to see an evolution, and she does have an evolution.
– Jen Van Epps
Actress Jen Van Epps returns as one of the voices of reason in the film series, an engineer who helped Gemma design the first M3gan and after the events of the first film, vowed to help Gemma empower humans and regulate artificial intelligence technology.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Van Epps about her experience returning to the sequel, with a focus on the quick rise of M3gan as a horror icon, how her character evolved and upgraded alongside the rest of the cast, how Tess is a moral lens for the audience to relate to, and why its important for her characters to not be tokenized people of color.
To start off Jen, how did you feel about coming back to this project and being part of this group and telling another story from this wacky world of M3gan?
I’m honored. The truth is my career didn’t take off until I was 40. I’m just honored to be able to step into such an incredible franchise that’s taken off and to be able to come back and do it again. Dream come true. Dream come true!
Although it only released in 2023, the first film and the character of M3gan have taken this life of its own. It feels like she’s joined in along all these other horror icons. How do you feel that it has gotten this legacy in such a short amount of time?
I think it speaks to the power of the franchise, to the writing, to the filmmakers, to everyone. I was flabbergasted, really and truly, just so surprised that this little indie horror film we made just took off and is now part of the horror zeitgeist. It’s insane. It’s such an honor, honestly. It’s amazing.
Tell us what your character of Tess has been up to and where do we find her in M3GAN 2.0, and the situation that sets up this sequel?
Okay, well. Tess does a lot of growing up. After you almost lose your life, you’re going to take a hard look at yourself and figure out, “how can I pick my feet up and keep it moving?” And so I think she leaves a lot of naivete behind and puts her big girl business pants on.
So when we first open this movie, you see her actually engaging in real nitty-gritty work, trying to get funds. The adult stuff, we need money! Before, we’re making toys and things. Now we’re like, “we need big girl money to help change the world.” Because at this point, we’ve seen the wrong that’s happened. What can we do to use technology in a safe way and bring that to the world?
What was the most exciting part for you to continue giving life to your character of Tess?
I mean, I think for me, tokenism is not something I ever want to be. I don’t want my character to ever be the token person of color. I want to see an evolution, and she does have an evolution. It’s like an evolution in everything as far as job title etc. I always say, I think she got a raise. She probably went in there and said, “Gemma, you almost got me killed! You better give me more money!”
I think that is apparent from the first scene, like she’s grown up, and you can even see that in her clothing. The first one is more colorful and cute and little bits and bobs and dangleys. In this one, Jeriana San Juan, our costume designer, did a beautiful job to upgrade, to keep the fun in it, but also to help her grow up stylistically as well.
It’s like everyone has moved forward in a sense, both machines and humans.
That’s right. Everybody’s stepping up.
For my final questions I was wondering, obviously, M3gan is in the spotlight in these films, but the humans around her are what brings audience members in to be relatable. How do you think your coworkers, the crew you work with, along with the filmmakers, ease us into this world by having the relatable and humorous characters like yours in these very violent and scary situations?
Yeah. I think that keeps it grounded. I think with these big, big ideas, the way that you keep things feeling real and doesn’t jump the shark is by having characters that are relatable that question what we’re doing. Tessa’s character questions. She’s the moral lens. She says, “What are we doing? Is this even right?”
Because the truth is, as an audience member, I’d be watching you like, “What are you doing?! Who would even do that?!” It’s nice to see someone actually speaking the words for you, and it keeps you locked in and not trailing off and trying to look at your phone because you understand what’s happening and feel connected in a human level.
M3GAN 2.0 is now exclusively in theaters.
