The future of M3GAN spinoff Soulm8te and indeed the M3GAN cinematic universe is in doubt after Universal pulled the movie from its release calendar.
Variety reported that Soulm8te, which was due out January 9, 2026, will now be shopped to other Hollywood studios.
Soulm8te was announced in 2024 following the huge success of M3GAN and its production company Blumhouse. It was described as an "erotic thriller" spinoff of M3GAN that focuses on a man who tries to cope with the loss of his wife by using an AI android. “In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate,” reads the official blurb.
Soulm8te is directed by Kate Dolan, who described the movie as "an exploration of relationships and loneliness.” “Despite technological advances, there are enduring human truths we cannot escape, and I am looking forward to delving into those depths.”
But then M3GAN 2.0 happened. It saw $10.2 million domestically and just $6.958 million internationally during its launch weekend, suggesting the first M3GAN movie, released in December 2022, may have been a lightning in a bottle moment with its eventual $180 million global haul. M3GAN 2.0 ended its theatrical run making a paltry $39 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo. That's $24.1 million domestically and just $14.9 million internationally, and an enormous $141 million decline on its predecessor.
IGN’s M3GAN 2.0 review returned a 6/10. We said: “M3GAN 2.0 hotswaps horror for sci-fi/action to mixed results, but M3GAN’s absolutely heinous wit and killer moves leave her, and not the new genres, the star of the show.”
In July, Blumhouse boss Jason Blum opened up on the disastrous launch of M3GAN 2.0, admitting to a number of failings. Appearing on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast to reveal his early thoughts, Blum said: “I’ve been in pain all weekend long and I’ve been thinking about all this stuff way too much.”
“We all thought M3GAN was like Superman,” he said. “We could do anything to her. We could change genres. We could put her into summer. We could make her look different. We could turn her from a bad guy into a good guy. And we classically overthought how powerful people’s engagement was really with her.
“We decided to genre swap. The audience was not ready to genre swap. People wanted more M3GAN just like she is.”
This is a reference to M3GAN 2.0 being less of a thriller horror, like the first film, and more of an action comedy. Clearly, this didn’t work.
Blumhouse, however, has recovered somewhat with the successful release of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 ($175 million and counting) and Black Phone 2 ($132 million). The question now is, what next for M3GAN? A significant expansion with spinoffs seems unlikely, but will M3GAN get a third movie?
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/m3gan-cinematic-universe-in-doubt-as-spinoff-soulm8te-pulled-from-release-calendar