Allison Williams produces and stars as Gemma in M3GAN 2.0, which will be released in theaters on June 27. While at NYCC last year, I had the chance to speak with the actress about her convention experience, the response to M3GAN, and more.

Two years after M3GAN, a marvel of artificial intelligence, went rogue and embarked on a murderous (and impeccably choreographed) rampage and was subsequently destroyed, M3GAN’s creator Gemma has become a high-profile author and advocate for government oversight of A.I. Meanwhile, Gemma’s niece Cady, now 14, has become a teenager, rebelling against Gemma’s overprotective rules. Unbeknownst to them, the underlying tech for M3GAN has been stolen and misused by a powerful defense contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia, the ultimate killer infiltration spy. But as Amelia’s self-awareness increases, she becomes decidedly less interested in taking orders from humans. Or in keeping them around. 

With the future of human existence on the line, Gemma realizes that the only option is to resurrect M3GAN and give her a few upgrades, making her faster, stronger, and more lethal. As their paths collide, the original A.I bitch is about to meet her match. 

You were talking about all of the costumes, so I’m going to go off of that. What is it like to be here, to be on that panel, and to see everyone showing up for you and for your work? I don’t know if you got to see some costumes…
Allison Williams: I sure did. Like a little humility, they’re not all here for me. This panel was a celebration of the Blum Universe, and rightfully so. I was very excited to see the costumes, and genuinely too scared to look at some of them. Anything in the clown space, can’t be going there. But I love this celebration of passion, of culture, of fandom, of a shared experience. I absolutely love it. I feel like I want to come to Comic Con as an attendee at some point, just to really celebrate the things that I like to nerd out on, with the people that also like to nerd out. I think it’s the happiest group of people I’ve ever seen. I just love every little group of people that I saw. I just absolutely was like, “I’m sure I would love you, I bet we would get along.” I just am like, I know I have something in common with all of you, which is that we all nerd out over something, and we’ve all wished we lived in a universe that someone else came up with that doesn’t exist in the real world, and the next best thing is being here together celebrating it, what could be better? Life is fucking hard, if you need to escape in the Middle-earth, Hogwarts, or wherever for a little while, do it and then go do it with other people who love doing it. What’s better than that?

I love that you used the word celebrated, because I feel like TV and film can sometimes be overlooked, but for people who are passionate about it, it’s so nice to have that moment to be able to be able to bond over it and realize the impact that it can have on someone’s life.
Totally. I mean, not to be grandiose about it, but it’s like, as human beings, one of the few things we have to do with our empathy is to relate to other people. It’s a huge skill we have that we developed as humans, and to be able to do that with someone you know, but also with a fictional character, is extraordinary. Like, you can just go into this life, imagine it your own [way], and interact with it, and I think that’s amazing.

Let’s talk about the success and the love for M3GAN. Fans were so happy that we didn’t have to wait that long for a sequel announcement. What was it like to see the reactions, obviously, from the first one, but also the excitement for the second one? What is it like to be part of? 
The life of this movie has just been such a joy. It’s a big swing, it’s specific, it’s a risk, objectively, there was nothing about the movie that was like, this is a sure bet. It was like, we’re gonna do our very best, hope that it resonates, and hope that people receive it, and the response was just extraordinary. It was more than you could possibly dream of. When the trailer came out, we were all like, “Oh my God, they get her, they get this.” It was such a relief, and then watching people dress up like her, learn the dance, and just really inhabit the energy of the character and movie, it was amazing, what more could you want? It was like a dream scenario, and then the ability to do it again, and to get the gang back together and work with so many of the same people, it was just undeniably wonderful. I couldn’t get there fast enough.