New 'Cloverfield' Sequel Launches Another Viral Promo

The long-delayed Cloverfield sequel (originally titled God Particle) was recently pushed back from its planned February release date to April. While the film still remains cloaked in mystery, a brand-new viral marketing promo has been launched to both tease the new film and mark the original Cloverfield's 10th anniversary.

The Cloverfield viral marketing machine is heating up again. The original Cloverfield had extensive, obsessive viral marketing surrounding it, all leading up to the film's January 18, 2008 release date. These included websites for the fictional drink Slusho, a blog devoted to a bickering young couple, and a mysterious Japanese mining company called Tagruato. The semi-sequel 10 Cloverfield Lane had its own brand of viral marketing as well, all of it as equally mysterious as the marketing for the first film. Now, as we await the third, still-untitled Cloverfield film, it looks like the viral marketing has started up again. The previously-mentioned Tagruato has a new, cryptic message on its website. There's not a whole lot here, but here's a screenshot anyway.

However, when you turn the brightness up on your screen, a vague, cryptic message can be read. Sort of. Someone on Reddit went ahead and transcribed the message for us all, proving that sometimes Reddit can be used for good and not just evil:

Tokyo – January 18 2018: Tagruato has begun development on a revolutionary new energy technology in what Ceo Garo Yoshida called a technological great leap forward for our planet. This renewable technology will take at least 4 years to complete along with another six years International regulatory bodies to bring the powerful revolutionary energy source by April 18 2028

But that's not all! This viral site has lead to another viral site, here: 04182028.com. It's...a bunch of gibberish and flashing images. The only thing I can make out is "Warn you about the dangers of–"...something. I'm sure someone on the internet will eventually crack this case.

This mention of "revolutionary new energy technology" might be in reference to what we know of the film's plot. Back when the movie was still known as God Particle, the story focused on a team of astronauts aboard an international space station who find themselves alone after a scientific experiment involving a particle accelerator makes the entire Earth vanish. It's also worth noting that Tagruato was the company likely responsible for awakening the huge monster that attacked New York in the first Cloverfield. Per the viral marketing for that film, Tagruato's deep-sea drilling roused the beast from its deep-sea slumber, with deadly consequences.

Then again, it's worth noting that the previous Cloverfield viral marketing, while entertaining, ultimately had very little to do with the final films. For instance, the first film's viral marketing featured an entire storyline about a couple named Jamie and Teddy – Teddy disappears, and his girlfriend Jamie keeps a blog, asking where he is. It all seemed like a pretty big deal, yet when Cloverfield was released, absolutely none of this was referenced, and the character of Jamie was glimpsed only briefly in one quick scene, asleep on a couch at a party.

In other words, feel free to have fun with this latest Cloverfield viral promo, but don't expect it to yield any earth-shattering clues. If anything, this will all result in a trailer for the film, along with a possible title. For now, all we know is that the third Cloverfield film stars Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O'Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo and Zhang Ziyi, and is due out April 20, 2018.