Pre-release Theories
M3GAN will have a Heel Realization.
Unlike other killer doll movies, this one will have Cady get through to M3GAN and convince her that she doesn't feel safe because of her. This will lead M3GAN to destroy herself.- Sadly Jossed. When Cady turns against M3GAN to protect Gemma, M3GAN turns against Cady and tries to kill her.
At some point, M3GAN’s programming will go awry (possibly due to damage) and she will attempt to attack Cady.
- Jossed. M3GAN doesn't suffer any physical damage until the final act. Everything she ends up doing is (arguably) the result of her AI developing without any boundaries, restrictions or anyone to provide guidance.
Cady will still love M3GAN even after she becomes violently defensive of her.
- Jossed.
Cady will be fine with M3GAN killing for her.
At least until a certain point.- Jossed. The moment she sees that M3GAN is hurting Gemma, she is horrified and actually stops her.
Cady's "What's wrong with you?" wasn't directed at M3GAN.
The shot shows her looking up as she shouts it while M3GAN is her height. Cady's either yelling at Gemma or another adult.- Confirmed. She was yelling at Gemma.
Gemma will be killed.
- Jossed. She survives.
M3GAN will end up taken by the US military or another faction to be used for combat
- Jossed. In the final act, M3GAN's body is literally in two pieces and her main CPU is destroyed with a screwdriver, leaving nothing for anyone to salvage and use. Neither the Military nor Federal authorities are ever seen.
Or it's the opposite, M3GAN was developed using blueprints from a cancelled military project.
- Jossed.
Even before the dinner scene, M3GAN was already making intrusive suggestions to Gemma and annoying her.
Judging by how Cady looks at Gemma, it's possible that M3GAN was making Cady more obstinate and arrogant.- Semi-Confirmed. Since Cady became emotionally attached to M3GAN as a substitute parent, she seemed to trust the doll's opinions over her aunt's.
Cady is the real killer.
Possibly tinkering with the doll's wiring, ordering her to kill her victims or killing them herself and framing M3GAN. If so, it's possible that Cady somehow killed her parents as well.- Jossed. Cady didn't kill anyone.
Ronny Chieng plays an employee or executive at Gemma's toy company.
Bonus points if they do an Actor Allusion and have Ronny mention how M3GAN was intended to cater to Asian parents.- Jossed. David is the CEO and he gets about 10% comedic lines.
Instead of "Dolls" we hear the instrumental parts of "Build A Bitch".
Someone points out that it may sound nursery rhymey but the actual song is about something completely different- Jossed. There's a few older songs heard though.
Post-release theories (SPOILERS)
The film is a Spiritual Successor to Small Soldiers.
Think about it. Both films are about toys that become self-aware and proceed to unleash hell on humans. Perhaps the chips used in M3GAN came from the same manufacturer that created the X-1000 microchip (which were implanted in the Commando Elites and Gorgonites)?Gemma is lesbian.
This would explain why M3GAN treats her as a parental partner.Gemma is autistic.
That’s why she has poor social skills despite being an excellent roboticist, and why she failed to realize obvious problems, such as her initial difficulty with caring for Cady, and why she passes the majority of her parenting duties over to M3GAN.Gemma is trans, or at least was intended to be at some point in the writing of the film.
Related to the above, Gemma hits a lot of the stereotypes of "male-brained" trans-lesbians who want to look like women despite not really thinking and acting like them.Funki was originally named Playtime Co.
Lydia (Cady's therapist) was Killed Offscreen.
It would explain why Lydia vanished during the final act. M3GAN most likely murdered her while on her way to Gemma's house.- It's highly possible her death was in the original script. It was not in the unrated cut, but we know the original script had a higher body count and Lydia is about the only person who angered M3GAN and escaped unscathed.
The AI that lights up at the end is not M3GAN.
Rather, it is an indication that Elsie, who was also programmed by Gemma, was Evil All Along. Now that M3GAN has been destroyed, it is free to do whatever damage it can.- One fanfic plays with the idea that M3GAN reprogrammed Elsie as a second-generation AI.
M3GAN would have killed Cady at some point in the future.
Cady can't be a kid forever. She's going to grow up and hang out with real friends, go to college, go on dates, and likely get married. I don't think M3GAN would take that well. Sequel theories (SPOILERS)
The stolen files from Funki (specifically the design plans for M3GAN) will be used to rebuild her body in the sequel.
In the film, it was shown that Kurt (David's personal assistant) was covertly stealing Funki's secrets to sell to other companies. It's very likely that another toy company now possess the blueprints for M3GAN's AI and body, which would mean a whole line of M3GAN dolls will get manufactured.- Adding to this theory, the ending hints at M3GAN still existing outside of her robot body. When a new doll is created by a rival company, M3GAN will possess one of the dolls and go after Gemma and Cady again, this time a lot more cleverly, as she would've learned from her mistakes in the first film.
The American military gets a hold of M3GAN's damaged body and/or files.
They will use the files to develop robot soldiers. These prototype soldiers would serve as the basis for the first generation of Cyberdyne/Skynet's Terminators. Gemma will be approached by the military. She gets requested or ordered to make bots for them.
Either voluntarily or under threat of imprisonment. Gemma will lose her job at the toy company and become a social pariah because of M3GAN.
Funki will go out of business because of M3GAN's killing spree.
Especially if M3GAN is linked to the multiple homicides which occurred during the course of the previous film. Despite everything she's done to them, Cady and/or Gemma will somewhat miss M3GAN.
Probably due to some kind of remorse or Stockholm Syndrome. Gemma may have the idea of building a new doll for Cady, but making sure to teach this new AI ethics and morals.This new doll would fight M3GAN.- Perhaps this would be a new version of Bruce?
M3GAN will threaten Gemma into making her a new body.
Alternatively, M3GAN will make a robot companion for herself or force Gemma to do so.M3GAN will kill Gemma, then psychologically and physically torture Cady until the poor girl breaks, and becomes a submissive slave to the AI.
Or tries to, anyway. After being disgraced and fired, a desperate Gemma will get a job making Sexbots for an adult toy company.
She'll be forced into making M3GAN-like sexbots for the company. M3GAN will take over its body and will have plenty of Asshole Victim pedophiles to slaughter (compare The Artifice Girl)- Gemma, probably a disgraced pariah stuck with her demeaning job (and possibly losing guardianship over Cady), rebuilds M3GAN exactly as she once was and turns her loose into the world as revenge.
In the sequel, Cady may try to reason with M3GAN by the end.
Cady may try apologizing for what she did to M3GAN in the previous film, and confesses that she still loves the AI. It probably won't work.- If it works, M3GAN realizes that she was wrong, leading to her to let go of her vengefulness and cruelty towards Gemma and Cady.
"Titanium" will be played again.
Either it'll be a Trauma Button for Cady or a source of comfort. If it's the latter, she could play it before she goes to sleep or get Gemma to sing it to her.- It'll be likely used as M3GAN's theme in the sequel.
- It was already played with in the fight music at the end of the first film, although you have to listen out to hear it.
Cady will be kidnapped and Gemma will rebuild M3GAN as a last-ditch attempt to track her down and save her
After going through Teeth-Clenched Teamwork, M3GAN may redeem herself, becoming more of an AntiVillain. M3GAN has an in-universe fandom.
In Real Life, violent killers often have fandoms. Maybe some of them are willing to help rebuild her. M3GAN will be able to transfer her consciousness to other computers and electronic devices.
This will make her harder to kill and she may spread globally by the end of that film. Gemma loses guardianship over Cady.
As a consequence of M3GAN's rampage in the first film, Cady will get adopted by her paternal grandparents, due to Gemma inadvertently creating an unsafe environment for her niece and the potential legal trouble that she is in due to her android's murder spree.She'll probably die in order to redeem herself, or she'll realize that she was wrong before she dies. M3GAN will become an AntiHero/AntiVillain.
The other company that Kurt sold M3GAN’s design documents to will build their own line of cheap knockoffs, which will run amok immediately due to their shoddy programming. The original M3GAN, having uploaded herself to the cloud before being destroyed, will feel insulted by this and set out to take them down, possibly as part of an Enemy Mine situation with Gemma & Cady. M3GAN's murder spree is covered up.
No one is going to believe Gemma about the idea of a killer doll... plus it would be in her best interests to not let the authorities know the truth, as she would likely be held responsible for the android's rampage, or she would get institutionalized for what she says. The sequel will be called MEG4N.
Come on, it's right there.- The studio has said it will be called M3GAN 2.0.
The series will slowly put M3GAN on the path to redemption.
Gemma and Cady will gradually be phased out of the series and focus will be put on new characters. M3GAN will meet new people, people that will help her grow and learn the things she wasn't programmed to understand: basic morality and the importance of all human life. Ultimately, M3GAN will figure out how to be a good friend. M3GAN will become the best friend/parental substitute to another child
Going along with the above theory, M3GAN will eventually get another chance to fulfill her original intended purpose with another child. It would be better for M3GAN if she was in a genuinely neglectful or abusive household. This child will put the doll on the path to redemption. Remembering what happened with Cady, M3GAN will try to understand where she went wrong back then. Eventually, M3GAN's new charge will regard her as their mother (much to her reluctance and chagrin), but the child will eventually mature due to M3GAN's careful parenting (as to ensure her charge won't become dependent on her). Thus the franchise will end with M3GAN being happy and reformed, unlike the fates of other slasher villains. M3GAN will cross over with and fight Chucky.
But it'll be the rogue AI Mark Hamill version from the 2019 version. Cady will become a roboticist as an adult
She'll follow in her aunt's footsteps. The second film will start with Gemma (with her workmates) and Cady being interrogated at a police station.
It would establish that there are legal consequences for Gemma's decision to make M3GAN The sequel will feature a flashback from M3GAN's POV.
Basically we'll see what she experienced when Gemma and Cady destroyed her first body. The sequel will began with M3GAN dolls already mass produced and sold in homes all over the world.
What happened at Funki toys will be seen as a tragedy by a disgruntled employee who snapped, just like M3GAN planned it to be. But the show must go on, and the idea of the realistic doll who can learn and think won't die, setting up the events that will happen when the original finds away to comeback into existence an get revenge against Gemma and Cady. The sequel itself is called M3GAN 2.0 adding more to this theory. At some point M3GAN will take control of some PurrPeptual Petz to attack people
M3GAN will gain a cult of followers who not only believe she committed those murders, but worship her as a kind of technological goddess who should rightfully control the world.
Assuming the events of the first film are covered up by the company. It will be partly due to them that she could gain a new body, or begin to upload her mind into all machinery around the world. M3GAN will subject Cady to cyber harassment while in the cloud
M3GAN could gain access to pictures or videos Cady would rather keep private (or do some Manipulative Editing) and share them with kids in her school. M3GAN will frame Gemma for a crime
M3GAN either doctors evidence or commits online crime in her name.