Never Let Me Go Meets M3GAN In Jenna Ortega's Exciting Dystopian Sci-Fi Adaptation

Published Oct 5, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT Karlis has been obsessing over television and movie news since he first learned how to read. He has worked in tech, as a musician, and in journalism with a well-rounded knowledge base of pop-culture throughout the eras. He claims that he has memorized the entire Internet Movie Database, and to date no one has been able to refute this. Holding a Bachelor's Degree in Religion and Culture from Wilfrid Laurier University, Karlis loves to examine the intersections of popular science-fiction and culture. His latest novel MASS. is available now on Amazon and examines a world where obesity has become a federal crime. Jenna Ortega is one of the most exciting young stars working today, and her next movie - Klara and the Sun - looks like a fantastic cross between Never Let Me Go and M3GAN. Following a number of great roles as a young star, Jenna Ortega broke through with Netflix's hit series Wednesday and has become a household name in the years since. Since 2022, Ortega has been a major part of 2022's Scream and its sequel the following year in Scream VI. While those films helped to elevate her popularity, she has since taken a great turn into more dramatic work, with compelling and subversive films like Jade Bartlett's 2024 movie Miller's Girl. Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a fantastic film and a box office hit that continued Ortega's relationship with the director and set her up for a bright future in blockbusters. She will appear in next year's The Great Beyond, the new film from J.J. Abrams, alongside a cast that includes Glen Powell, Emma Mackey, and Samuel L. Jackson. Before then, however, Ortega has a fantastic new science fiction literary adaptation releasing very soon. Based on an excellent novel by an acclaimed author, and directed by one of today's most interesting auteurs, this new project has the potential to lift Ortega into an even higher echelon with its uniquely topical AI premise. Klara And The Sun Adapts A Popular 2021 Novel By Kazuo Ishiguro Taiki Waititi's new film Klara and the Sun looks to be a fantastic adaptation of the hit novel. Several of author Kazuo Ishiguro's excellent books have been turned into tremendous films over the years, including 1989's The Remains of the Day and the popular 2005 novel Never Let Me Go. The latter was a great science fiction story with tremendous thematic, emotional, and philosophical depth. It told a romantic story between a set of clones that were created as organ donors, but examined their inherent humanity in clever and compelling ways. The film starred Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan, and Keira Knightley. Klara and the Sun, releasing October 23rd, also looks at the nature of humanity and where it resides. The film focuses on the relationship between Jenna Ortega's Klara, an Artificial Friend, and Josie, a young, ill girl with whom she is matched. Their relationship is warm and compelling, and provides a unique look at identity and personhood. The novel is a powerful story about connection and loneliness set in a fairly grounded possibility of the future. Klara is emotional and empathetic, and she is used as a form of support for Josie, who is navigating her way through a major bout of sickness. The film also features Amy Adams and Natasha Lyonne. Taika Waititi's New Film Takes A Unique Approach To AI Evolution Compared To M3GAN M3GAN was a fantastic horror movie with strong undertones of humor and camp that was released in 2022. The film saw an artificially intelligent doll who was intended to serve as a friend for a young girl, similar to the premise of Klara. However, that film examined the more twisted possibilities behind that burgeoning intelligence. In fact, this has been common in stories about AI. Dune and Terminator are among the major film franchises that predict an inevitable apocalypse caused by the advent of artificial intelligence, and many other films have followed in their wake. This reasonable framing has caused the technology to typically be cast as a villainous force in films. M3GAN did an excellent job with this, as did the remake of Child's Play, which reimagined the iconic killer doll as technology gone rogue. However, there are other stories and other possibilities that are also worth looking into in detail. While there are certainly real concerns to be presented about the dangers and risks of the technology, it is also refreshing to see big movies that attempt to examine additional possibilities. Films like WALL-E, Bicentennial Man, and The Creator are a handful of the projects that have tackled such thematic ideas. Last year's Tron: Ares was one of the biggest and most recent projects to do this through the humanizing of its AI character, Ares, played by Jared Leto. The core of the film looks at the possibility of AI tending toward the good of humanity, rather than inevitably being headed toward a destructive pragmatism. This reflection on the technology is made clearest when Greta Lee's Eve Kim speaks the film's most memorable line: "What if its major malfunction is benevolence?" While AI could certainly evolve to operate beyond human understanding, the film suggests that it is possible this could reach through to the ineffable qualities of human goodness rather than its potential for violence. How Klara And The Sun Looks To Present A More Hopeful Story Courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment Waitii has made a number of great movies over his career in Hollywood, but his approach to Klara is a little bit different, and a great deal more character-focused. "This one probably may even be my most dramatic film,” he told Vanity Fair, detailing how Ortega's performance feels markedly different from how she has been seen in projects like Wednesday. She's so bright in real life... She’s super charming and really fun and funny. I was really keen to see that version of her onscreen. Even in this characterization, there's a sharp contrast to films like M3GAN, which examined a darker side of artificial intelligence, as well as Never Let Me Go, which examined the destructive ways that humanity can use technology. Instead, Klara and the Sun contains a more hopeful look at the possibilities of that technology. With that said, not everything in the novel turns out perfectly, and there are certain to be some emotionally challenging beats that play out in the film. The Artificial Friends in the book are often used and treated like objects, which is sure to be especially emotionally impactful in this live-action adaptation. Considering the fantastic work that Waititi has done balancing humor, heart, and deep drama in stories like the underrated Hunt for the Wilderpeople, it is likely this will be done effectively here as well. Waititi has proven to have great dramatic skills throughout his career, especially with projects like 2019's Jojo Rabbit. Hopefully Klara and the Sun is able to live up to its fantastic potential. With a powerful book to adapt, a skilled director and star teaming up, and a unique, timely premise, there is certainly much to be excited about in this science fiction adaptation when it releases later this month. Release Date October 23, 2026 Runtime 116 Minutes Director Taika Waititi