Last Sunday, Netflix dropped a major surprise when it released The Cloverfield Paradox – the third instalment in Paramount and Bad Robot Productions’ Cloverfield cinematic universe.
The film, originally going by the title God Particle, had been pushed back from its planned theatrical release on several occasions – with subsequent reports claiming that Paramount believed it was “salvageable” – and reviews for the movie were certainly not kind.
Speaking on Facebook, producer J.J. Abrams was asked how The Cloverfield Paradox came about, and why he felt it was a perfect fit for the Cloverfield franchise:
“Originally, it was written by Oren Uziel, who wrote a draft that was its own thing, and was around for a while,” said Abrams. “We started to think, ‘What are ways that this might fit into the world?’ But when we started shooting the movie, it was still something we were thinking about. Because the idea for the Cloverfield series was not so much that it be this narrative throughline, but more that they be these really fun sort of thrill rides.”
Abrams went on to elaborate, adding that: “If you imagine an amusement park, that’s a Cloverfield amusement park, and every ride has a different purpose, but they all connect in some way or another. While we were shooting, we were making adjustments. This was a movie that went through many different iterations as it went along.”
SEE ALSO: Read our reviews of The Cloverfield Paradox here and here
While The Cloverfield Paradox may not have received quite the reception that Abrams and company would have hoped for, he did go on to confirm that lots of different ideas are being floated around for future instalments under the Cloverfield umbrella, although he refused to discuss any concrete plans.
Nevertheless, it is believed that the World War II supernatural thriller Overlord will be the fourth Cloverfield movie, with Julius Avery (Son of a Gun) directing a cast that includes Jovan Adepo (Fences), Wyatt Russell (22 Jump Street), Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones), Dominic Applewhite (The King’s Speech), Pilou Asbaek (Ghost in the Shell), Iain de Caestecker (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), John Magaro (The Big Short), Mathilde Ollivier (The Misfortunes of Francois Jane) and Bokeem Woodbine (Spider-Man: Homecoming).
Meanwhile, it has also been rumoured that Bad Robot’s fantasy thriller Kolma – which has Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) directing and Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley as its lead – is also being lined up as part of the Cloverfield series.