After M3GAN became a surprise smash in 2022, an inevitable course of action followed: plans for a sequel as well as a M3GAN-adjacent cinematic universe. Unfortunately, 2025’s M3GAN 2.0 flopped at the box office. Following that disappointment, the first and only announced spin-off, erotic thriller SOULM8TE, was removed from Universal’s schedule just a month ahead of its planned arrival in theaters.
That was December 2025. Now, in July 2026, Universal has announced SOULM8TE will indeed see the light of day after all—but not on the big screen. Instead, the movie producer James Wan intriguingly described almost exactly one year ago as “like Fatal Attraction but with robots” is coming to digital platforms August 1.
A trailer accompanied this news, giving us our first look at Evil Dead Rise‘s Lily Sullivan as Sara—a jealous girlfriend from hell who’s also a super-strong android with no “off” switch—in action.
Yes, that is Alien: Earth‘s David Rysdahl as the “grieving engineer tasked with testing a ruthless tech giant’s new artificially intelligent android” who crosses an unfortunate line “when he attempts to program her to be a truly sentient soulmate [and] she develops needs of her own—unleashing a relentless spree of precision-engineered mayhem,” as a press release tells us. The cast also features Claudia Doumit (The Boys) and Arty Froushan (Daredevil: Born Again).
“When Blumhouse Atomic Monster first approached me about an erotic thriller set in the M3GAN-verse, I thought, are you insane? But something drew me in,” director and co-writer Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother) explained in the release. “We exist in a bizarre time where companies sell us ‘connection’ through apps, algorithms, and AI. Yet those are the same forces pulling us apart. The lonelier we get, the more dependent we become on the tools doing the pulling.”
Here’s the part that makes us think SOULM8TE could find its audience much the way M3GAN did: by embracing the glory of camp. “SOULM8TE is a satirical, unhinged movie that explores desire, obsession, autonomy, and control,” Dolan said. “It’s a movie that knows how ridiculous it is, and I’d argue it’s best watched the way you’d watch Basic Instinct or Showgirls now, with friends, a drink in hand, and zero shame about shouting at the screen.”
Invoking the golden goddess cult classic that is Showgirls is very bold and feels like it could be a bit of a retcon, but now we’re actually way more intrigued. Will you be checking out SOULM8TE when it makes its digital debut?
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