Allison Williams And New Gay Icon M3GAN Guest Star On Saturday Night Live
This post contains spoilers for "M3GAN."
Blumhouse may have the next big slasher franchise on their hands. Who's the star? M3GAN, the killer fembot with the dance moves of a teenage TikToker. The film's been both a critical favorite and a box-office hit, and a sequel is being fast-tracked.
M3GAN, portrayed physically in some scenes by young actress Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis, is a robotic doll designed to take interactive toys to a new level. She winds up being a little too good at her primary functions, developing sentience while taking her assignment of protecting Cady (Violet McGraw) to homicidal levels. "M3GAN" ended with some clear sequel bait. After M3GAN's body is destroyed, an Alexa-like smart home device owned by M3GAN's creator Gemma (Allison Williams) stares right into the camera, heavily hinting that M3GAN's mind lives on. So where does the story go from here?
The writers of "Saturday Night Live" just threw their pitch for "M3GAN 2.0" in the ring, featuring two versions of the dancing doll and a cameo from Williams.
M3GAN 2.0
The sketch presents itself as a trailer for "M3GAN 2.0." It opens with a recreation of some scenes from the movie (such as the aforementioned dance), with M3GAN herself played by "Saturday Night Live" regular Chloe Fineman. Then the trailer reveals that "M3GAN 2.0" not only features a new model of its titular character (Aubrey Plaza, whose deadpan facial expressions are perfect for the sardonic robot), but this time, she won't be best friends with an elementary school girl. Instead, she'll be interacting with the film's true target audience: adult gay men.
M3GAN 2.0 shows off her moves at a gay nightclub, complete with bisexual lighting and the patrons (played by Kenan Thompson and Bowen Yang, among others) cheering her on as "Mother," "Queen," and more. The two M3GAN's even start dancing together (the original gets shut down by 2.0 when she calls her fans "homos," but apparently 2.0 has h-word privilege).
The trailer rattles off fake pull quotes; one of them, courtesy of Variety, declares "It's like 'Bros,' but for gays." That's when Allison Williams shows up and tries to break up the party with warnings of M3GAN's murderous nature. However, the bar patrons recognize her from "Girls" (and particularly from a certain scene in "Girls") and invite her to join them instead. The narrator caps off the trailer declaring, "This one's for the gays."
Now, "M3GAN" director Gerard Johnstone has told /Film that the sequel won't try to consciously create memes, even if the original has become a sensation on that front. That means the audience pandering won't be as explicit as in this "SNL" sketch. But if gay audiences turn out for their new icon a second time, "M3GAN 2.0" should be another horror hit.