M3GAN Director Details Original Ending, Why It Was Cut

While M3GAN has been a smash hit since its recent premiere, the film starring the killer android was originally supposed to have a much different ending then it did in its final version.

Speaking to Variety in a recent interview, director Gerard Johnstone confirmed supervising puppeteer Adrien Morot’s statement that, originally, the film was supposed to have a much more CGI-heavy ending.

“They had this battle with Bruce, and there was gonna be one more part of it where they thought they’d got away, and Bruce essentially … they leave the workshop where they had this big battle, and then they hear a ‘ka-chunk!’ and it’s Bruce’s head being thrown,” said Johnstone. “And then, through the smoke of the doorway, M3GAN emerges just as a disembodied torso, and Bruce is holding her from behind and clomping along the corridor. It was great, and I was really in love with it. But we couldn’t do it for a number of practical reasons. We tried to shoot that version, and the physics didn’t work out. There were all these logistical things. So that’s why we end up doing the version we did. But I love the version we did, even though that was a cool idea. I love the version we got because it made Cady’s character so much more interesting.”

While the ending that did make it into the film does also involve a big fight with Bruce — a large, human-controlled robot that’s introduced early in the film — the battle is much more one-sided, although M3GAN does get in some “back from the dead” scares despite being easily dismantled by Bruce.

“M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally,” reads the film’s synopsis. “Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma, M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to.

When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady, Gemma’s unsure and unprepared to be a parent. Under intense pressure at work, Gemma decides to pair her M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems — a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.”

M3GAN is now playing in theaters.