Universal has released the first trailer for Soulm8te, the R-rated spinoff of the M3GAN franchise, confirming the film will arrive on digital platforms on August 1, 2026. The announcement ends a prolonged period of uncertainty for the project, which was pulled from theaters in December 2025.
The reason is familiar. M3GAN 2.0 earned approximately $39 million globally against a budget estimated between $15 and $25 million, a steep fall from the original film's $181.8 million worldwide haul. That shortfall made a theatrical path difficult to justify. Soulm8te had been penciled in for January 2, 2026, then shifted to January 9, before Universal quietly removed it from the calendar altogether.
Directed by Kate Dolan and co-written with Rafael Jordan, the film follows a grieving engineer tasked with testing an artificially intelligent android for a tech company. When he attempts to reprogram her as his ideal companion, the results turn lethal. Lily Sullivan leads the cast alongside David Rysdahl and Claudia Doumit. James Wan and Jason Blum produce through their Atomic Monster and Blumhouse banner.
Dolan addressed the detour without bitterness. According to ComicBook.com, she said: "As a filmmaker, my love is movies and you're always hoping for a theatrical release. But I have to say, some of my favorite movies...I saw all of them on my TV...My experience of those films was no less from watching it at home."
Whether the franchise can recover its footing may depend on what audiences make of the shift to VOD. August 1 will answer the question.