New footage from CinemaCon has revealed a look at the upcoming movie Soulm8te. The movie is an M3GAN spinoff about a man who purchases an AI robot to cope with losing his late wife. The film features a leading cast including Claudia Doumit, David Rysdahl, Lily Sullivan, Steve Chusak, Emma Ramos, Ossian Perret, and Oliver Cooper. It is directed by Kate Dolan and based on the script co-developed by Dolan, Ingrid Bisu, Rafael Jordan, and James Wan. It is set for release on January 2, 2026.

In a Universal presentation at CinemaCon attended by ScreenRant, new footage has been revealed for Soulm8te. The footage starts out with an adult robot being delivered to an apartment. After the robot is seen doing helpful tasks around the house, she tells her male purchaser, “I love you. Tell me you love me.” The robot then becomes obsessed with him, and threatens his human girlfriend, eventually trying to murder her. Check out the full footage description below:

It begins with someone delivering an adult robot to an apartment. She is then shown doing all sorts of things like cleaning, offering companionship, etc. She then tells the guy who purchased her: “I love you. Tell me you love me.” She becomes obsessed. She threatens and harms anyone who comes close to the guy who purchased her. His girlfriend tries to negotiate with her, but the robot says, “Don’t try that girl power sh*t with me,” then tries to drown her.

What This Means For Soulm8te

It Puts A Spin On The M3GAN Universe

Soulm8te was first announced in June 2024, after an M3GAN sequel had already been announced. Its promotion at CinemaCon shows that the franchise is a big priority for Universal. The coming months will be important for the budding robot doll universe, as M3GAN 2.0 is set for release on June 27, 2025. After this release, audiences will only have to wait about six months before another installment in the M3GAN universe is available via Soulm8te.

Soulm8te does stand out from its predecessors in that its AI doll is “an adult robot.” In M3GAN, the тιтular robot was created to be a childlike companion for engineer Gemma’s grieving niece. From the early plot description, Soulm8te will also feature themes of coping with grief, as the protagonist was previously described as having lost his wife. However, it will have to take on these themes using adults as its main characters, changing the tone from the previous movies in the universe.

Our Take On The Soulm8te Footage

There Are A Lot Of AI-Based Film Plots Recently

This movie is set for release at an interesting time, when movies focused on AI are on the rise. This year has already seen the release of the sci-fi horror film Companion, which has some similarities with Soulm8te in that it features a robot girlfriend and her human boyfriend. I was wary that the M3GAN spinoff would seem like a copycat story after this film was released, but from the footage description, it actually sounds like Soulm8te is somewhat of a reversal of Companion, making the robot the evil one.

Source: Universal