Cloverfield 4 Mystery Solved?

By April Ryder | Published

Cloverfield

Cloverfield 4 sure has stirred up some intrigue among franchise fans over the past couple of years. The fourth installment in the series has been touted for release for several years now, with very little information regarding the storyline and purpose of the film being leaked along the way, but an article from Den of Geek did offer up a few hints regarding the new movie. 

“We’ve started out being like, let’s write a Cloverfield sequel. So it’s about the first Cloverfield movie and then ours. And it’s following on.”

Joe Barton, Cloverfield 4 screenwriter

If you’re not already familiar with the franchise, Cloverfield is a sci-fi anthology film series created by J.J. Abrams. The first three movies are all set in the same universe, but they are not linked in a traditional sequel manner. Cloverfield 4 will shift that trend. 

As a whole, the Cloverfield franchise revolves around creatures from other dimensions who aim to attack the Earth in various ways over several decades. An astronaut on the Cloverfield Space Station had an experiment go terribly awry, resulting in various portals being created for alien beings to easily travel to Earth. 

10 Cloverfield Lane

Though it has been reported that the script for Cloverfield 4 is finished and the film is in production, there is still no official release date for the movie. However, there are a few things that are known about the upcoming film. 

First off, Cloverfield 4 probably won’t be titled Cloverfield 4. The first three movies in the series are standalone entries in the franchise, but the fourth installment will be a direct sequel to the first Cloverfield movie, released in 2008. 

The movie has been written by Joe Barton (The Lazarus Project), and it will be directed by Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow). It won’t be like the original Cloverfield movie in the way that it won’t revolve around a “found footage” type of scenario. 

Though it has been reported that the script for Cloverfield 4 is finished and the film is in production, there is still no official release date for the movie.

After the critical hits taken by the third installment in the franchise, Cloverfield Paradox, Cloverfield 4 will have to work to clean up the mess its predecessor has made. Paradox tried to tie into the original film but did a bit too much in the eyes of the critics. 

cloverfield paradox netflix sci-fi streaming
The Cloverfield Paradox

The explanation offered in Paradox left the mythology of the story in a mess, and Cloverfield 4 will have to present a much more organized approach to achieving the tie-in feel they are aiming to create. Watching how the writers of the film choose to circumvent the events of Paradox will be interesting all on its own. 

Matt Reeves Concept For Cloverfield 4

Matt Reeves, the creator of the original Cloverfield story, threw out his own ideas on how Cloverfield 4 might tie into his creation. Reeves talked about how he “did something” with the first film to leave an opening for a sequel.

There is a person filming on the Brooklyn Bridge right before the tail smashes through, creating a great entry point for a new story. What is the perspective of the person filming? How did they survive the events of the evening? Reeves also threw out a viral approach to the sequel. After the COVID-19 pandemic, Cloverfield 4 could take the route of an invasive virus attack on Earth. 

Regardless, the makers of the film are keeping the details of Cloverfield 4 under wraps, just as they have done with all three of the previous movies. Fans likely won’t get much more information about the movie before it hits the big screen, but that’s all part of the excitement, right?