Spuriously speculating which of J. J. Abrams’ 6 new projects will end up being surprise 'Cloverfield' films

Pretty much everyone loved J. J. Abrams’ monster flick Cloverfield when it was released in 2008. And then when the sequel 10 Cloverfield Lane came out in 2016 – oh boy! – they somehow managed to make a totally different but equally excellent movie.

Things took a slight detour when The Cloverfield Paradox hit Netflix – but let’s move swiftly on from that one, shall we?

You may also like

JJ Abrams explains why you can’t please everyone

And now we’re all enjoying WWII horror Overlord, also from Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, and there was even some speculation that it would slot into the Cloverfield universe as the fourth in the franchise.

But Abrams quickly put the kibosh on that. “We’re actually developing a true, dedicated Cloverfield sequel,” the director told journalists at CinemaCon.

And with today’s latest announcement, via Deadline, that Bad Robot is working on six new projects, we’ve had a look at all the deets and judged which ones might end being new Cloverfield movies. 

1. Untitled time travel movie

An apparently self-contained time travel story is being written by Ben Shiffrin and will be based on an original idea. Shiffrin is the writer of 2016’s cat body-swapping movie Nine Lives and was also attached to the as-yet-unreleased movie Squirrels, which looks scary and ridiculous:

This one is quite possibly a Cloverfield film that’s being set up to explain the weird time travel tangents that came up in the last Cloverfield film. Hopefully it will  feature lots of cats.

2. Only the Lonely

This movie, with a script from XOXO writer Dylan Meyer and The Longest Week’s Peter Glanz, is said to be a science fiction romance and will mark the directorial debut of Stefan Grube, the editor of 10 Cloverfield Lane, Tully, The Front Runner and the Abrams-directed Star Wars IX.

It’s got good Cloverfield links but it’s also being referred to as a romance, which isn’t very Cloverfieldy. The obvious shout would be that it’s a biographical romantic romp about the life of Roy Orbison, but let’s face it - probably not that.

3. The Steps

The Steps, written by comedian Blair Butler, is apparently an original idea from director Stefan Grube.

It’s being described as ‘a possession story with a twist’ which doesn’t sound very Cloverfield but then neither do the plots of the other two Cloverfield sequels if you’re comparing them to the original. The title however feels very on brand for the franchise. 10 Cloverfield Lane, for example, was originally named The Cellar before being revealed at the very last moment to be a Cloverfield movie.

4. Everything Must Go

Everything Must Go, not to be confused with the 2010 Will Ferrell movie, stars Bobby Hall (aka rapper Logic), who is co-writing with Lisa McQuilla, who’s written for Broad City and black-ish.

This movie is apparently aiming to be “Clerks for a new generation”. Going out on a limb, we’ll say this is definitely not a Cloverfield film, unless we really didn’t understand Clerks the last time we watched it.

5. Untitled female horror

Megan Amram, who writes for The Good Place and Silicon Valley and is effing hilarious on Twitter, is penning this original concept movie, described as a female-driven horror allegory.

Continuing the on-trend theme of film releases with a primarily female cast, this could be a Cloverfield film. But we’re guessing it’ll basically just be Scream, but with an all-female line-up and it’s probably going to be really good because those types of films usually are, aren’t they?

6. The Seven Sisters of Scott County

Courtney Hoffman will be writing and directing this “original film about moonshine, trucking and sisterhood.”

A female-fronted Western? Definitely intriguing. But we’re taking a punt that it probably won’t be the next Cloverfield because that would be quite insane wouldn’t it?

(Images: Bad Robot / Getty)