Big budget cinema is all about the cohesive universe these days and, while the Cloverfield franchise might seem to be shaking that mould – with its anthology-style approach and snapshots of different timelines – the thought has still crossed the minds of its architects. Indeed, producer J.J. Abrams has recently confirmed that the idea of a Cloverfield team-up has absolutely been considered.
His comments were made as part of a Facebook Q&A session, held during the promotion of The Cloverfield Paradox – the latest franchise instalment that received a surprise release on Netflix after the Super Bowl.
“We’ve talked about versions of things. 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. The 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.”
While a team-up feature is not something that’s actively being pursued at the moment, the fact that the idea has been considered at all demonstrates the unique nature of this franchise. It’s an anthology – setting it apart from the more traditional film universes – but it’s still strung together by common threads which are drawn even closer by The Cloverfield Paradox.
In 2008, the smash-hit monster movie Cloverfield first introduced the concept – with its found-footage plot device, and cliffhanger ending. When 10 Cloverfield Lane arrived in 2016, the psychological thriller was not obviously connected to the first film, until the third act. However, far from being ‘shoe-horned in,’ that connection felt entirely organic within the plot, thanks to the overall premise of the story.
In The Cloverfield Paradox, we’re presented with a near-future science-fiction tale that potentially joins the whole thing together – the suggestion being that the events in this film essentially caused the events in the first two, while also having them occur on different timelines. J.J Abrams is entirely correct, though, when he describes Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character Michelle as an “awesome heroine,” and the notion of her crossing paths with Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ava – also a brilliant character – is certainly an intriguing one.
What’s certain is that there’s plenty of life left in the Cloverfield universe, with more installments arriving soon. Whether any of them will eventually include the return of either Michelle or Ava – or both – remains to be seen, but as always, we’ll let you know once any further updates arise.