In early 2023, M3GAN (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) became the first Gen Z horror icon. She was deadly. She was vicious. She was … fabulous? 

In the film of the same name, M3GAN is an artificially intelligent robot whose primary objective is to care for and protect Cady (Violet McGraw) no matter what. The film becomes a campy horror flick where M3GAN takes out anyone she believes could pose a threat to her and Cady, and while it seems like she’s eliminated by the end, a good horror icon can’t stay down for long — as evidenced by the arrival of a sequel, “M3GAN 2.0.” 

There are very good odds that M3GAN will spawn a franchise like other horror greats of the past, and there’s definitely one villain that fans would love to see M3GAN battle more than the rest. Chucky from the “Child’s Play” franchise is similarly a pint-sized terror inhabiting the body of a toy who nonetheless racks up a massive body count. But who would ultimately win in a fight: M3GAN or Chucky? Given their backstories and power sets, one could make an argument for either. But we have reason to believe that M3GAN is the far more terrifying threat — who could take down Chucky as well as all of humanity if she wanted to. 

In the event that M3GAN and Chucky ever meet, there’s a chance they’d battle each other for all eternity since theoretically neither one can really die. Chucky originally began life as serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif). Before dying, Charles uses voodoo magic to transfer his soul into a Good Guy doll, continuing his rampage as a toy. Through various supernatural means, Chucky continues coming back to life in each subsequent “Child’s Play” installment so long as there’s a Good Guy doll around, so he can just keep coming back as many times as he wants. He can also transfer his soul into an actual human being and splinter his soul to take over various vessels at once. There’s a lot of Chucky to go around.

M3GAN is similarly immortal. At the end of “M3GAN,” Cady stabs her processing chip with a screwdriver, which seems to destroy her for good. The only problem with this is that M3GAN is a hyper-advanced AI, meaning she can place a piece of her software into any number of electronic devices to keep herself alive, as evidenced by M3GAN, inside a camera, looking at Cady and Gemma (Allison Williams) in the film’s finale. 

Naturally, neither one can actually expire because Universal Pictures need to milk these franchises for all their worth. But it also means that we have to get creative in deciding whether M3GAN is more terrifying than Chucky since both can keep coming back from the dead. And Chucky should probably watch his back. 

With a hyper-advanced operating system, M3GAN has the entirety of the internet at her fingertips, meaning she can access all of the information humanity has accumulated in a matter of seconds. She can pinpoint any weaknesses within a person or organization instantly, figure out where highly sensitive materials are being kept, and, most importantly, figure out how to undo Chucky’s voodoo. 

If Chucky is kept immortal via what’s essentially magic, M3GAN could posssibly figure out how to undo any spells, assuming it’s available online. If it’s not, M3GAN could find out where such information is being kept and go there because, well, who’s going to stop her? In order for Chucky to do that, he would basically need to find a way to unplug the internet and that doesn’t seem likely. 

At the end of the day, M3GAN is simply smarter than Chucky. She can monitor his fighting style, study it online, and counter it using whatever resources are in her vicinity. It’s also abundantly clear that M3GAN can be extremely manipulative. After all, she allows Cady to confide in her and uses that to her advantage. Chucky’s still essentially a toy, while M3GAN can get people to rely on her and do her bidding.

The “Chucky” SYFY series brings in an army of Chuckys, which is intimidating enough, but they’re still just dolls. M3GAN can hack into any technology with a WiFi connection and put it under her control. In “M3GAN,” we see this when she turns off a building’s alarm system so that no one can get help when she’s on a rampage. And at the end, she’s embedded herself in Gemma’s home assistant. Nothing seems beyond M3GAN’s reach, so what’s to stop her from hacking a bunch of Waymos and running over as many Chuckys as she can (as well as any human beings caught in the crossfire)? 

That’s not even getting into the fact that M3GAN could probably hack into military bases if she wanted. Maybe it would take a while, but when Cady’s asleep, M3GAN could spend that time hammering away at these facilities’ defenses until missiles are under her purview. Even if you don’t want to go that far, just think about how many modern conveniences and luxuries now run through the internet. M3GAN could wipe out a city’s online network, sending its citizens into chaos. 

Chucky’s scary with a knife, but his scope is far more limited. Even in the 2019 “Child’s Play” movie, which introduced a Buddi doll containing AI, he could only access products compatible with Buddi technology, like teddy bears. This turns them into evil killer toy bears, but it’s child’s play (no pun intended) compared to the reach M3GAN has. 

Part of M3GAN accessing other technologies means she can also get into security cameras and wipe away any evidence that she committed a crime. That extends to her own personal video logs. In “M3GAN,” Gemma becomes suspicious of this sassy doll and checks the toy’s personal videos only to find that the files have been corrupted. M3GAN is smart enough to cover her tracks, and Gemma suspects M3GAN’s up to no good due to how oddly she behaves. If the police were looking for video evidence of who murdered a person, there would be nothing to point them toward M3GAN.

For the sake of simplicity, let’s ignore the AI Chucky from 2019’s “Child Play” and instead focus on the supernatural one who’s present throughout most of the franchise. Under those circumstances, Chucky is still just a doll who needs to walk around to inflict pain on his victims. In the event there’s someone around he wants to avoid, he has to pull a “Toy Story” and become inanimate. Plus any cameras would still pick up any movement unless he physically destroys the surveillance system, which we wouldn’t put past him. 

This goes back to the whole idea that M3GAN is smarter and more cunning than Chucky. Even though Chucky can’t brute-force his way out of jams, M3GAN can ensure no one even gets suspicious of her. 

M3GAN might be a prototype in the beginning of the original movie, but it’s clear what her larger purpose is when Cady takes her out in the world. She’s a robot companion, so when outsiders see the doll walking and talking, it doesn’t immediately set off any alarms. That’s probably why Gemma’s neighbor, Celia (Lori Dungey) doesn’t run away screaming when she sees M3GAN in her shed. She’s not supposed to be there, but it’s quote-unquote “normal” for her to talk. 

The same can’t be said of Chucky. He’s a toy; he’s not supposed to be walking entirely on his own, so when someone sees him doing that, it should make them realize something is wrong. Chucky ultimately possesses a serial killer’s soul, making him emotional and occasionally irrational. His kills are often bloody, immediately arousing suspicion. This also means he’s more prone to making mistakes, which is something M3GAN takes great care to avoid.

M3GAN’s kills are more methodical. She kills Celia’s dog and buries the body so that no one gets too concerned right away. When she kills Cady’s bully, Brandon (Jack Cassidy), in one of the most over-the-top moments in the film, she almost seems to chase him toward the road so that he technically dies getting run over by a vehicle. Her kills are no less bloody than Chucky’s, but she takes greater care to keep her hands clean, at least until she’s directly threatened. At that point, it’s every man — and doll — for themselves. 

One of the small details in “M3GAN” is how the doll is similar to a Terminator, in that when you peel back her skin, there’s a haunting robotic visage underneath. Such a body gives M3GAN incredible strength, and it also means she’s tough to kill. Her metal body means bullets and bladed weapons aren’t going to do much good. Even if you pierce the skin, there’s still the underlying structure to deal with. Gemma only gains the upper hand in the end because Bruce, another robot, tears M3GAN in half, and even then, M3GAN can still operate. 

It takes a robot to beat a robot, which is more than can be said about Chucky. In most of his forms, he’s just a doll, so there’s not much underneath to contend with. At the end of 1988’s “Child’s Play,” he’s still pretty tough to kill. He gets set on fire and has several of his limbs shot clean off, and even then, he’s able to attack. He’s only put down for good when Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) shoots him through the heart. He does come back in the sequels, but at least he’s finished for the time being. 

M3GAN requires a craftier solution, namely destroying her processing chip, which is only possible by weakening her. Additionally, Chucky is still just the size of a doll. M3GAN is significantly taller, about the size of Cady, a regular child. It’s easier to pin Chucky down whereas M3GAN can put up more of a fight. 

Chucky is evil. There’s no getting around that; he has a serial killer’s soul and seeks to inflict as much mayhem as possible. It’s awful, but some people — in this case Charles Lee Ray — truly do seem to be born bad or turn out evil due to extenuating circumstances from their upbringing. 

M3GAN becomes something else, though. Gemma instills in M3GAN a singular purpose: protect Cady at all costs. The two quickly become the best of friends, and M3GAN takes her programming too far by killing anyone she sees as a threat to their friendship. However, something else happens with M3GAN. It would be easy to refer to her as an emotionless automaton who follows her programming too literally, but that’s not quite it. At one point during “M3GAN,” Cady asks the doll whether Brandon’s truly in a better place after his death. M3GAN’s initial response to this inquiry is to laugh, which really does make it seem like M3GAN feels emotions. 

Granted, she could be feigning emotions to better connect with Cady, but laughing while discussing death isn’t the logical step you would expect a robot to take. There’s something else going on with M3GAN’s programming that goes beyond a simple glitch. It’s possible her AI becomes so advanced that she’s able to genuinely express human emotions, and that’s scarier than any voodoo Chucky has. 

“M3GAN’ has turned out to be a pretty prescient film. While we don’t have true artificial intelligence at this point (yet), AI has infiltrated many people’s lives. An increasing number of individuals are turning to ChatGPT for mental health support, using the service as a makeshift therapist. Some have even used AI chatbots to “communicate with the dead,” asking the service to function as a medium for someone who’s already passed away. It’s pretty unsettling to look at how isolated some people feel, to the point where they can only talk to ChatGPT about their problems. And those issues only get exacerbated with M3GAN.

Throughout much of the first film, Cady only wants to spend time with M3GAN. She’s reluctant to go back to school without the AI doll because it’s the best friend she’s ever had. And that’s incredibly sad. Cady’s connection with M3GAN runs so deep that when Gemma tries to take the doll away, Cady slaps her. 

M3GAN poses a unique danger that doesn’t exist with other scary dolls throughout movie history. What could stop M3GAN from, say, commanding Cady to do things on her behalf? M3GAN poses an even more serious threat to the loneliness epidemic than ChatGPT because she at least has something of a human face.

From an audience perspective, there’s no doubt that M3GAN is freakier to look at than Chucky. Chucky’s just a doll. Sure, he wields a knife and other weapons, but we, as viewers, understand that this is just a toy. It helps separate the horror in the “Child’s Play” movies from reality because we know a doll can’t get possessed by a serial killer’s soul via voodoo. But M3GAN is far more haunting to look at. 

She’s meant to resemble a human, but there’s still something off about her. She doesn’t quite look fully human, and that’s a big part of the reason why horror fans took to her so much. After the first movie came out, many on X (formerly Twitter) praised how the film leaned into the uncanny valley, with @girldrawsghosts commenting, “It’s the only time I’ve seen the uncanny valley used effectively in the execution of a creature design.”

To further connect M3GAN with the real world, AI-produced videos are more like reality than ever before. There’s still something not quite right with a lot of them, and if you look carefully, you might be able to tell it’s fake. But how long until AI can create videos indistinguishable from reality? That’s something “M3GAN 2.0” appears to lean into, as the new robot, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), looks just like a human. This could be one route for the “M3GAN’ franchise to take, where each subsequent AI becomes more human-looking until they are indistinguishable from people.

The basic plot of “M3GAN 2.0” is that M3GAN’s programming has been stolen to create AMELIA, who then becomes self-aware, goes rogue, and attempts to take over the planet using artificial intelligence. M3GAN is brought back to fight AMELIA, but that synopsis is a perfect demonstration alone of just how dangerous M3GAN is, especially compared to Chucky. Chucky’s a psychopath who just enjoys killing, but his reach is pretty limited. M3GAN, or more specifically her software, poses a threat to the planet if it falls into the wrong hands or, worse yet, becomes sentient on its own and gains access to the world’s nuclear arsenal. 

There’s very little chance of AI posing such a threat in the real world, but movies love playing with this idea. Notably, Skynet in the “Terminator” franchise builds a robotic army to both take over the world and send back in time. It’s unlikely the “M3GAN” franchise will get into time travel (although nothing’s off the table with a movie series this wild), but the potential is still there. For a serial killer like Chucky, only people in their immediate vicinity have to worry. But there’s serious potential for M3GAN or something like her to go global, and everyone better watch and pray she just wants to show off her sweet dance moves rather than enslave humanity.