Gemma is a main character/ hidden villainess in the M3GAN film franchise. Having been alone her whole adulthood, Gemma's life is thrown in turmoil when her niece joins her in Seattle, Washington to be aided against her past scars.
In the original film, she creates M3GAN, an artificially intelligent doll who can be used as a companion for lonely children. After learning about M3GAN's murderous tendencies, Gemma, alongside Cady, Tess and Cole, solved and survived the events of M3GAN's killing spree.
Gemma is portrayed by Allison Williams.
Biography[]
M3GAN[]
Gemma, who works at Funki, and she starts developing a new robot doll with her coworkers Tess and Cole in 2024. However, on January 17, 2025, their boss, David Lin, wants them to develop a cheaper version of the Purrpetual Petz since their rival companies are coming out with their own toys similar to the Petz for cheaper than what the Petz already cost. The three try to put on a silicone face and run tests, but the robot has a slight glitch where she is smirking when she is supposed to look confused. David comes in with his assistant Kurt to chew the three out until Gemma explains her project to him. The robot, M3GAN, short for Model 3 Generative Android, is meant to be so advanced that she cannot be replicated. Unfortunately, while running a demonstration for David, Cole realizes he forgot to add the polypropylene barrier to M3GAN, causing her to explode. David orders the three to have a new Petz pitch in time, and Gemma gets a call from the hospital.
After learning of her sister’s death, Gemma becomes Cady’s temporary legal guardian. When they return home, Gemma has to deal with her neighbor Celia and her obnoxious dog Dewey, who keeps running onto Gemma’s lawn since there is a hole in the fence. Gemma also complains to Celia about the pesticide she keeps using, but Celia does nothing about it. Gemma has a home AI, Elsie, that she created, as well as other collectibles that she doesn’t let Cady touch or play with. When Cady asks Gemma to read her a bedtime story, she just downloads an app on her phone for her. It is implied that Gemma and Nicole were not very close as she looks over old photos, and she overhears Cady crying in her room.
Gemma and Cady are visited by Lydia, a therapist. After observing the limited interaction between the two, Lydia tells Gemma that Ryan’s parents have offered to take custody of Cady so she can live with them in Jacksonville, which Gemma doesn’t seem comfortable with. After promising to tend to Cady after finishing her work, Gemma realizes hours have passed as she left Cady alone. She apologizes to her and attempts to bond with the girl. Cady shows her a monster drawing she made, so Gemma brings Cady into her workspace to show her a college project she made, a robot called Bruce that she controls using gloves. Cady loves Bruce and mentions that if she had a toy like Bruce, she would never need another toy. This inspires Gemma to finish M3GAN.
After doing extensive work and upgrades, Gemma brings Cady and M3GAN to work to officially show her off to David and others. Gemma has Cady link herself to M3GAN, bringing her to life. M3GAN is capable of speech and responding to Cady, designed to be her best friend. M3GAN does a drawing that doesn’t appear at first until she spills water on it, revealing a perfect portrait of Cady. David is impressed and tells Gemma to bring M3GAN for a presentation with the company’s president so that they can fast-track the development and distribution of other M3GAN dolls. Gemma sits with Tess and Cole, and they discuss that while M3GAN is highly advanced, Tess feels that having a doll like that will make parents useless. M3GAN turns on after overhearing Gemma mention the death of Cady’s parents. She creeps the others out by asking about death, so Gemma makes herself M3GAN’s secondary user to be able to turn her off without Cady.
The next day, Cady is outside playing with a toy bow and arrows. One of them ends up on Celia’s side of the fence. When M3GAN goes to retrieve it, Dewey grabs her by the arm and hair. Cady tries to pull her away, and Dewey ends up biting Cady’s arm. Gemma gets the police involved, especially since Celia is so callous and doesn’t punish Dewey for hurting Cady, but the police are unable to do anything since Celia claims Dewey was provoked. Gemma asks Cady if she is okay to go to the demonstration with the company’s board of directors, to which she says she is fine. During the presentation, however, Cady breaks down in tears to M3GAN over how she misses her parents and how she’s worried she will forget them one day. M3GAN then begins to sing a lullaby to Cady, which moves some of the higher-ups in the room to tears. The president is impressed and talks to Gemma and David about getting M3GAN ready for launch, but tells them to keep her under wraps to avoid leaks.
Gemma begins to see that Cady is becoming too dependent on M3GAN and listens to the doll more than her. During another session with Lydia, Cady begins to tear up, and M3GAN threateningly accuses Lydia of making Cady cry. Lydia talks to Gemma about how Cady’s emotional connection to M3GAN may be too strong to break. Later, Gemma brings Cady to an outdoor activity session for an alternative school to try and ease her into the idea of attending school and being around other real kids, since Cady’s parents had homeschooled her. Cady reluctantly goes but brings M3GAN despite Gemma saying she couldn’t. During the activity, Cady grabs a spiky bulb, which Brandon squeezes her palm into to hurt her. M3GAN then appears, and Brandon grabs her since she doesn’t respond to him. Cady yells for Gemma and runs after M3GAN, which worries Gemma more because it means M3GAN is at risk for public exposure too early.
Later at home, police question Gemma at her house since Celia is accusing her of taking Dewey. She also appears to accuse M3GAN, thinking she is a real life friend of Cady’s. After learning about Celia’s death from police and being suggested that there was a connection with Brandon’s death, Gemma grows suspicious of M3GAN. She reviews video files from M3GAN’s memory, but only sees a brief clip of her eyeing Brandon looking menacingly at Cady before the files all become corrupted.
Gemma brings Cady to the official launch for M3GAN but stops at a session with Lydia first. Cady becomes angry and throws a tantrum because Gemma took M3GAN away from her, leading to Cady hitting her aunt across the face. Cady apologizes but Gemma has a heart-to-heart with her about needing to process her grief over her parents without M3GAN’s help, though she promises to be a better guardian to her and says Cady is the only thing that matters to her. Gemma then goes to Tess and Cole and expresses her fears that M3GAN killed Brandon and Celia. They have M3GAN hooked up to wires to deprogram her while Gemma takes Cady home.
On May 31, 2025, Gemma puts Cady to bed before she hears M3GAN playing the piano downstairs. M3GAN confronts Gemma about how she felt that they had a real relationship during M3GAN’s development, only for her to be left to her own devices to learn and adapt before being sold off as just another toy. She offers to let her take over guardianship of Cady so that Gemma can focus on work, but after seeing that Gemma still plans to shut her down, M3GAN is done playing nice. They try to hide their fight from Cady, but Gemma seizes an opportunity to throw water on M3GAN to briefly short her out.
Gemma runs into her office, but M3GAN catches her there and threatens to make Gemma brain-dead so that Cady won’t live with her grandparents and M3GAN will just care for Cady and Gemma together. They begin to fight, with Gemma cutting M3GAN’s face with a weed whacker, but Cady comes in to see what is happening. M3GAN tries to get Cady on her side, but after realizing who the real villain is, Cady grabs the gloves for Bruce and activates him. The larger robot grabs M3GAN and throws her around before splitting her body in two. The top half then goes after Cady for feeling betrayed, but Gemma grabs M3GAN and begins stabbing her face. M3GAN nearly overpowers her until Cady grabs a screwdriver and stabs the central processing chip, shutting M3GAN down for good.
Gemma and Cady go outside as the police arrive with Tess and Cole, injured and shaken up but still alive.
M3GAN 2.0[]
Coming Soon!
Committed Murders[]
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M3GAN | Stabbed in the central processing chip | M3GAN |
Relationships[]
Family[]
Allies[] |
Enemies[]
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Notable Quotes[]
- "M3GAN, turn off."
- "I'm not equipped to handle this. I don't even take care of my own plants."
- "Her arm looks like a Dentist's Mold!"
- "Cady, you lost your parents. The worst thing that could've happened to you in this world happened. And it is so unfair, and there is nothing anyone can say to make sense of it. Not even M3GAN. I am so sorry. I should've talked to you about what happened. I didn't know what to say, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. But she's not a solution. She's just a distraction. I can't promise you that these feelings you're feeling are ever gonna go away. But I can promise you that you'll get through it. We both will."
Trivia[]
- Gemma is the creator of M3GAN.
- Before M3GAN, Gemma created another robot in college, named Bruce.
Gallery[]
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The image gallery for Gemma may be viewed here.
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Appearances[]
Character Guide[]
| M3GAN Characters | ||
| Principal Characters | Gemma • Cady James • David Lin • Cole • Tess • M3GAN | |
| Supporting Characters | Kurt • Celia • Lydia • Brandon | |
| Minor Characters | Greg • Officer Carter • Ava • Holly • Police Detective • Nicole James • Ryan James | |
| M3GAN 2.0 Characters | ||
| Principal Characters | Gemma • Cady James | |