In the wake of the $181 million worldwide box office success of M3GAN in 2022, Blumhouse bet big on the movie being the launch of an exciting new franchise... but three years later, things have not turned out as planned. Not only did the direct sequel, M3GAN 2.0, bomb when it was released in theaters this past summer, but now we have the news that the completed spinoff Soulm8te has had its planned theatrical release cancelled.
Per Deadline, Universal Pictures has gone one step further than simply deciding to axe the planned release of the new horror movie (which was supposed to come out a few weeks from now on January 9, 2026). In addition to taking it off the 2026 movie release calendar, the studio is now actively looking for another studio to pick it up and distribute it. There are apparently no current hints as to where it will end up.
Directed by Kate Dolan , Soulm8tes was originally described as an erotic thriller that would serve as an adult counterpart to the PG-13 M3GAN movies. The story follows a widower who is left despondent following the death of his wife, and he purchases an gynoid to help fill the empty void in his life. As you can probably guess, this relationship doesn't go as expected and ends up taking some horrific turns. The cast is led by Alien: Earth star David Rhysdale, Evil Dead Rise's Lily Sullivan, and The Boys' Claudia Doumit.
The movie followed M3GAN 2.0 into production, with principal photography being completed a little over a year ago, but it only changed release dates once: after initially being dated for January 2, 2026 in mid-2024, it got pushed a week this past May to January 9. Now, Paramount Pictures has swooped in and taken that release date for their own upcoming horror film: writer/director Johannes Roberts' Primate.
Back in June, producer/story developer James Wan hyped the movie as being akin to "Fatal Attraction but with robots," and that sounds pretty rad... but Universal has apparently lost faith in its ability to be a box office success. M3GAN 2.0 had more than double the budget of its predecessor ($25 million vs. $12 million), but it completed its theatrical run worldwide making only $39.1 million.
Unfortunately, there are still a lot of questions that don't have answers. For example: if another studio does end up picking up Soulm8te for distribution, will the movie be edited to remove ties to the M3GAN duology? And if it doesn't end up selling, what will happen to it? This is a story that will be interesting to follow as we say goodbye to 2025 and get ready for the slate of scary movies that are set to debut in the new year.
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