'M3GAN 2.0' reboots a horror-comedy gem, with add-ons

By Stephen Thompson,

Glen Weldon, J.C. Howard, Candice Lim, Hafsa Fathima, Mike Katzif, Jessica Reedy

Published June 30, 2025 at 9:12 AM EDT

M3GAN returns in M3GAN 2.0 — M3GAN returns in *M3GAN 2.0*

The horror comedy M3GAN spawned memes, made a fortune, and even taught us a lesson about the dangers of outsourcing our humanity to AI. The sequel, M3GAN 2.0, pans out to tell a bigger story about an even deadlier AI killing machine — and brings back the original M3GAN for some hi-tech robot-on-robot violence. Though M3GAN was defeated at the end of the original film, her tech remains — and it's found its way into a rogue AI assassin named Amelia.

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Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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Glen Weldon

Glen Weldon is a host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. He reviews books, movies, comics and more for the NPR Arts Desk.

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J.C. Howard

J.C. Howard is a producer for TED Radio Hour and How I Built This with Guy Raz. He started with NPR as an intern for How I Built This in May 2018 and began producing in his current capacity in January 2019.

Candice Lim

Candice Lim is a production assistant at Pop Culture Happy Hour. Prior to joining NPR in 2019, she interned at several publications, including The Hollywood Reporter, WBUR and the Orange County Register. She graduated from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in journalism and is proudly from Fullerton, California.

Hafsa Fathima

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Mike Katzif

Jessica Reedy

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