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The Next Cloverfield Movie Is God Particle; Shared Universe in the Works
After years of fans clamoring for a
Cloverfield sequel, Paramount and
J.J. Abramspulled off a pretty terrific surprise by announcing that an upcoming thriller called
Valencia was actually called
10 Cloverfield Lane mere months before its release, adding that it would have a tangental connection to the Abrams-produced 2008 film.
10 Cloverfield Lane, under the direction of
Dan Trachtenberg, turned out to be a pretty incredible contained thriller and still stands as one of the best films of the year, and now it turns out it was only the beginning of the
Cloverfield universe.
Per
The Wrap, the upcoming sci-fi thriller
God Particle is the next movie “connected to”
Cloverfield, with the report noting that Abrams and Paramount (and presumably Bad Robot) are also quietly developing even more movies for the shared
Cloverfielduniverse. The hope, per The Wrap’s report, is that they’re able to release a new film in the shared
Cloverfield universe each year.
Image via Warner Bros.
Just like with the film that was eventually revealed to be
10 Cloverfield Lane,
God Particle was developed and shot under the radar with
Julis Onah (
The Girl Is in Trouble) directing the story of a team of astronauts who make a “terrifying discovery that challenges all they know about the fabric of reality, as they desperately fight for survival.”
Selmastar
David Oyelowo and
Beyond the Lights breakout
Gugu Mbatha-Raw (who also co-stars in the stellar new
Black Mirror episode “San Junipero”) lead a cast that also includes
Ziyi Zhang,
Elizabeth Debicki,
Daniel Brühl, and
Chris O’Dowd.
When Oyelowo and Mbatha-Raw joined the cast this past spring,
I speculated thatGod Particle might be another Cloverfield movie, and it looks like that’s the case. I actually think this is an incredibly smart way to approach the
Cloverfield franchise—by allowing filmmakers to develop unique, contained stories that are connected to but not direct sequels to
Cloverfield, we get the best of both worlds: original sci-fi stories with unique points of view, and a franchise films that further expand a universe.
10 Cloverfield Lane was a fantastic character-centric story that only touched on the alien portion of
Cloverfield during its third act, but it sounds like
God Particle may give us a much closer look at what’s going on by taking us to space. Will the film be set before the events of
Cloverfield, as the creature makes it descent towards Earth, or will this be in the aftermath as more creatures head towards our planet? Will
Super 8 be revealed to be a retroactive
Cloverfield movie? We’ll find out on February 24, 2017 when the film hits theaters nationwide.