‘Y2K’ Director Kyle Mooney Shares Thoughts on AI

Artificial intelligence has been a source of contention of late, to put it mildly, even escalating tensions in Hollywood to the point of an actors’ strike just last year. There’s a collective sense of dread over the subject and how it will affect (or infect) multiple areas of work, but that technological anxiety is not new. 25 years ago, at the dawn of the new millennium, the so-called “Y2K” panic led to widespread paranoia and fears that technology would simply shut down or turn on us once the clocks struck midnight on January 1, 2000. In reality, nothing of the sort occurred at the time — but what if it did? Said alt-universe notion is the A-story of A24’s new horror-comedy Y2K, from co-writer, director, and co-star Kyle Mooney (Saturday Night Live).

Watch as a seemingly innocent high school graduation party gets brutally terrorized by robots, electronic household appliances and more once the year 2000 officially kicks off. MovieWeb recently caught up with Mooney to learn more about his wild new film and if the current concerns of A.I. were top of mind during the writing and production process.

“It’s definitely something we were conscious of as we were writing it,” said Mooney. “It’s funny, because we started writing it in 2019, and I think since then, there’s been an evolution of learning about A.I. and its sort of ‘threat,’ you know, however you want to consider it. Personally, I think we should always be conscious of what’s happening around, the world around us. But also, I think we should be careful about being obsessive and not enjoying our moments with our friends and family and the beauty of what life is.”

I think we should be careful about being obsessive and not enjoying our moments with our friends and family and the beauty of what life is.

Jaeden Martell on Kyle Mooney’s Signature Humor

Also joining our Mooney interview were Y2K‘s leading men, Jaeden Martell (It) and Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2), whose bumbling, awkwardly lovable high school characters might remind moviegoers of a certain comedic blockbuster starring Jonah Hill (a producer on Y2K) and Michael Cera. Dennison and Martell agreed that Superbad indeed came to mind as they geared up for their standout Y2K roles, but that it didn’t become an imitation game by any means, as they embraced the humor within Mooney’s outrageous script. Says Martell:

“It’s almost a slippery slope of getting too attached to something. I think all my favorites… I don’t think I watched much comedy during that time… because sometimes, as an actor, you can be sort of, like, very adaptable and malleable, which you think is a good thing [but isn’t necessarily]. But even being around Kyle — it’s a dangerous thing to do Kyle’s humor, try to do something that you know he’s mastered for 50 years [laughs]. So it’s almost good to stay away from it.”

From A24, Y2K will be released in theaters on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024.