J.J. Abrams on future Cloverfield genres and potential team-up movie

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

During the Super Bowl, a trailer for what was revealed to be the next installment in the CLOVERFIELD franchise aired, but that wasn't the biggest surprise. It turned out that THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX would be premiering on Netflix that very night. Unfortunately, the film didn't receive nearly as much praise as its predecessors enjoyed, but it did raise some interesting possibilities for the future. We already know that the next installment in the franchise will likely be OVERLORD, a thriller taking place on the eve of D-Day which follows a group of American paratroopers who are dropped behind enemy lines to carry out a mission crucial to the invasion’s success. But as they approach their target, they begin to realize there is more going on in this Nazi-occupied village than a simple military operation.

Beyond this, almost anything is possible, and while speaking during a recent Facebook Live Q&A, several potential genres for the franchise to tackle were brought up, including romantic comedy, but J.J. Abrams' personal choice would be for a western. Cowboys and aliens? Sign me up, there's no way that could disappoint… Never mind. Abrams was also asked whether the future might bring a potential team-up movie, bringing together characters and monsters from the previous movies, and although it's all theoretical, it does seem to be something they've considered.

We’ve talked about versions of things, like when we did 10 Cloverfield Lane, we were thinking Michelle – the character Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays – it’s such a sort of weird origin story of this kind of incredibly, I think, awesome heroine, that idea of following her story is really cool. And then at one point, we were like, ‘You know what would be really cool? What if they crossed paths with Gugu [Mbatha-Raw]’s character Ava?’ You start to think of ‘what ifs.’ And I think the bigger ideas that we’ve had about where this thing goes haven’t necessarily been those ideas, but they’ve kind of been fun theoretical offshoots.

In keeping with his famous secrecy, J.J. Abrams said that they've been "talking about a lot of different things, and obviously when the time is right, I can't wait to talk about it, but not here, not now." Abrams believes that the fun of the franchise is that everytime a movie is revealed to be associated with the CLOVERFIELD franchise, it'll be a different thing. "Sometimes it'll be just up your alley, and other times it won't quite be your thing," said Abrams. "But hopefully everytime it's like a crazy ride."

What type of genres would you like to see the CLOVERFIELD franchise tackle?

THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is now available to watch on Netflix.