The M3GAN spinoff Soulm8te has been pulled from Universal’s release calendar, originally slated for January 9, 2026. Deadline reports that the studio is now shopping the film to potential distributors.

The move comes after the underwhelming reception of M3GAN 2.0, which grossed just $39 million worldwide on a $25 million budget—far below the $180 million global haul of the 2022 original.

Directed by Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother), co-written with Rafael Jordan (Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon), and produced by James Wan (Atomic Monster) and Jason Blum (Blumhouse), Soulm8te expands the M3GAN universe into darker, adult territory.

The story follows a grieving man who acquires an artificially intelligent android to cope with the loss of his wife. His attempt to create a fully sentient partner backfires, turning a harmless love-bot into a deadly soulmate.

The cast includes Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise), David Rysdahl (Alien: Earth), Claudia Doumit (The Boys), Arty Froushan (Daredevil: Born Again), and Oliver Cooper (Project X).

James Wan previously described the project as “M3GAN’s AI world through a more grown-up lens… embracing all the great erotic thrillers of the ’90s. It’s like Fatal Attraction but with robots.”

If another studio picks up the film, it’s possible that any direct references to M3GAN could be removed, leaving Soulm8te as a standalone AI horror-thriller.