James Wan has teased SOULM8TE might be like “Deadly Attraction however with robots”.
The 48-year-old director is producing the upcoming M3GAN spin-off, and has now revealed SOULM8TE “embraces all the nice erotic thrillers from the ‘90s”.
Talking with Leisure Weekly, Wan stated: “SOULM8TE is principally set in the identical AI world however seen by a extra grown-up perspective, one which embraces all the nice erotic thrillers from the ’90s. It is like Deadly Attraction however with robots.”
The Conjuring filmmaker – who additionally wrote the story for SOULM8TE alongside Ingrid Bisu and Rafael Jordan – added the flick nonetheless has “that darkest sense of humour” from M3GAN and its sequel M3GAN 2.0, “but it surely’s actually extra grown-up”.
He defined: “It’s arduous to duplicate that sassiness that M3GAN has, and we do not actually need to do the identical factor that we have accomplished as a result of M3GAN has absolutely caught a declare to that type of humor, if you’ll.”
He added: “M3GAN, clearly, dabbles within the PG-13 world, the youthful demographic. We all the time felt like there may be a extra grownup story to inform, and that is actually what SOULM8TE is.”
In SOULM8TE, David Rysdahl stars as a grieving widower who turns to an AI android (Lily Sullivan) for consolation.
Nevertheless, his quest to create a sentient companion takes a darkish flip when the love-bot evolves right into a deadly soulmate.
Allison Williams – who stars as Gemma within the M3GAN movies and serves as govt producer on SOULM8TE – defined the idea of a love-bot mirrors the darkish reality of actuality.
She stated: “It is already occurring in components of the world. These exist.
“So it felt irresistible to then say, if a M3GAN existed in our world, somebody would take that tech and put it within the type of a female-bodied particular person whose sole goal on the planet is to pleasure an individual. We extrapolate from there.”
Williams pressured SOULM8TE – which has accomplished principal images in New Zealand and is because of hit screens in January 2026 – can be separate to the M3GAN movies regardless of being a part of the identical cinematic universe.
She stated: “Here is how I’d describe it: Everybody has already pictured it.
“When the primary film got here out, we knew everybody was going to be imagining this, so we have been like, ‘Do not try this to our lady.’
“We provides you with a unique particular person and a unique story and an R-rated world to do that in. Let M3GAN be M3GAN, and go away her out of this utterly.”
The subsequent instalment of the horror sequence, M3GAN 2.0, releases on Friday (27.06.25), and can comply with the titular robotic after she is rebuilt by her creator Gemma (Williams) to battle the self-aware navy android AMELIA, who’s intent on an AI takeover (Ivanna Sakhno).
Trying to the longer term, Wan stated the staff is but to significantly take into consideration making a team-up film with M3GAN, SOULM8TE and AMELIA, although have been open to the thought.
He stated: “The Avengers of the M3GAN universe? I have not actually considered that, I received to be sincere.
“We’ve joked about it, however we’re not fairly positive whether or not in that model, are they the villains or are they the nice guys? We’ve not crossed that path.”
