James Wan reveals the surprising way 'Annabelle' inspired 'M3GAN'

She's more than a meme.
By
Belen Edwards
 on 
A life-sized doll of a young girl in a brown coat.
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She’s more than a toy. She's family. And now she's unrated.

The M3GAN Unrated Edition is yours to own on digital Feb. 24 and Blu-ray Mar. 21. Both the theatrical and unrated versions of M3GAN will also be streaming on Peacock Feb. 24.

To celebrate the arrival of 2023's first must-see horror movie to digital and streaming, Mashable has an exclusive clip to share from M3GAN's bonus features. In it, members of M3GAN's creative team — including director Gerard Johnstone, writer Akela Cooper, and producer James Wan — discuss how M3GAN came to be.

"Blumhouse have just made some of the greatest horror movies in the last 20 years, and James Wan is likewise the undisputed master of the genre, especially when it comes to unsettling dolls," Johnstone says.

"I get accused of being the master of killer doll movies," says Wan, who's produced movies like Annabelle and the Conjuring franchise (as well as being the co-creator of Saw and Insidious). "In those doll films, my dolls don't actually get up and kill anyone. They're usually just vessels for demonic entities. So I said, if people are going to think of me as a killer doll filmmaker, let's actually do one. Hence, the concept of M3GAN was born."

"James really wanted M3GAN to be her own person," Cooper explains. She and the M3GAN team most certainly accomplished that goal, as M3GAN has become a horror icon for the ages. She came, she danced, and she conquered — and we love her for it. We can't wait to see what carnage she gets up to in the Unrated Edition.

Topics Film

A woman in a white sweater with shoulder-length brown hair.
Belen Edwards
Entertainment Reporter

Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness.


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