'Cloverfield' Is Finally Getting A Direct Sequel, But It Won't Be Found Footage

As early as January of 2008, there were discussions about a possible sequel to Matt Reeves' giant monster movie Cloverfield. The franchise expanded in new directions with the great 10 Cloverfield Lane and the not-so-great The Cloverfield Paradox, but a proper follow-up never materialized – until now.

Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot have hired British screenwriter Joe Barton, who was recently brought on as the showrunner of HBO Max's The Batman TV spin-off, to write the script, and J.J. Abrams will return to produce the movie.

The Hollywood Reporter says that a proper Cloverfield sequel is finally (finally!) in development. But unlike the 2008 original, this sequel will not use the found-footage format. (It's what /Film writer Chris Evangelista called "the Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 approach.") Details about the plot are being kept secret, but it seems like a good bet that this movie will feature references to some of the in-universe companies and products established throughout these movies, even if its plot does not explicitly link up with the two existing spin-off movies. And here's another interesting note: Matt Reeves, who directed first movie, will not be involved with this new entry.

In addition to tackling the Gotham P.D. spin-off of Reeves' upcoming film The Batman, Barton created the crime drama Giri/Haji and wrote for shows like Humans, Cuffs, and Our World War. He also wrote the script for the horror film The Ritual.

In 2008, Reeves revealed in an interview that a sequel was being bandied about, and that it might end up showing the events of the first film from a different perspective. "While we were on set making the film we talked about the possibilities and directions of how a sequel can go," he said. "The fun of this movie was that it might not have been the only movie being made that night, there might be another movie! In today's day and age of people filming their lives on their iPhones and handy cams, uploading it to YouTube...That was kind of exciting thinking about that." I remember thinking about how cool it would be if the protagonists from the first film passed another group of people, and then a whole other movie was made about that second group.

Years later, Reeves promised that "you are going to see" a Cloverfield sequel, but "we just don't know when." At the time, he was talking about a sequel that would have been made by the same creative team that made the first one; that same configuration is no longer in place, but his promise seems to be on its way to coming true.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Cloverfield was Matt Reeves' feature directorial debut. His actual feature directorial debut was the 1996 film The Pallbearer.