The Big Picture

• Ivanna Sakhno joins Allison Williams and Violet McGraw in M3GAN 2.0.
• The sequel picks up after the original film's homicidal doll rampage.
• M3GAN 2.0's release set for May 16, 2025.

After breaking out in Star Wars: Ahsoka as the mysterious villain Shin Hati, Ivanna Sakhno is about to face off against a different kind of droid in M3GAN 2.0. She will join Allison Williams and Violet McGraw in the horror sequel. Deadline reports that Sakhno's role will be a major one, but details about her character, and the plot in general, are still being kept under wraps.

All we know for now is that the sequel will pick up where the original film left off, in the wake of the titular artificially-intelligent doll's homicidal rampage. Williams will reprise her role as Gemma, M3GAN's designer, with McGraw returning as Cady, Gemma's orphaned niece who was given M3GAN as a companion. The 2022 original was a huge success for horror impresarios Jason Blum and James Wan, making $181 million USD on a $12 million budget, and was well-received by critics: in her review, Collider's Alyse Wax called it "a great movie. It is fun, it is funny, and it is weird". Universal immediately put a sequel into development, and plans to release it on May 16, 2025.

Who is Ivanna Sakhno?

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sakhno appeared in a number of successful Ukrainian productions before departing to Hollywood, where she made her English-language debut in the horror film The Body Tree. Roles in the action sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising and the Kate McKinnon/Mila Kunis comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me followed, as did a recurring role on Hulu's High Fidelity. Her most prominent role to date is that of the eerie Dark Jedi apprentice Shin Hati on the Disney+ Star Wars series Ahsoka; Hati survived the series' first season finale, despite being abandoned by her villainous allies, but there is no word yet on whether she'll return for the series' second season.

Much of M3GAN's creative team will return for M3GAN 2.0. Akela Cooper will pen the script with Gerard Johnstone, who will return to the director's chair. Wan, Blum and Williams will produce, while Johnstone, Mark Katchur, Michael Clear and Judson Scott of Atomic Monster, Ryan Turek of Blumhouse, and Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath of Divide/Conquer will executive produce.

M3GAN 2.0 is slated to be released on May 16, 2025. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates. The first movie is currently streaming on Peacock in the U.S.

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