While plenty of memorable giant monster movies have come out in recent years, one of the best in the genre ever made, Cloverfield, still doesn’t have a sequel 16 years later. Plenty of giant monster movies have come out in recent years, including five movies in the Monsterverse, starring Godzilla and King Kong, as well as media in the Pacific Rim franchise. However, one of the best ever made was Cloverfield, a found footage movie about a giant creature attacking New York City during a night of terror.
Cloverfield references other monster movies while telling a unique, original story about a group of people trying to escape New York without being killed by the main monster. Critical praise was given to the movie’s intense, first-person perspective, with the movie also becoming a commercial success at the box office. But despite earning $172.4 million globally against a $30 million budget, and spawning multiple Cloverfield movies, a direct sequel to the 2008 original has never been made.
Related I’m Officially Giving Up On This Long-Awaited Sci-Fi Sequel Ever Happening Despite there being many rumors about a Cloverfield sequel, its production has met many problems leading audiences to believe the film won’t happen.
Why Cloverfield Never Got A Proper Sequel In 16 Years
Cloverfield 2 Has Been In Development Since 2018
Close
At CinemaCon in April 2018, franchise producer J.J. Abrams confirmed Cloverfield 2 was in development, acting as a direct sequel to the original movie. By 2021, it was confirmed the screenplay would be penned by Joe Barton (Encounter), while in 2022, Babak Anvari (I Came By) was announced as director. Alongside Abrams, the film will be produced by Hannah Minghella and Jon Cohen. However, since the announcement of Anvari’s directing, there has been radio silence about details surrounding the direct sequel.
A new sequel also wasn’t produced due to a focus on crafting a shared universe of movies with different storylines that all connected to one another. The first of these was 10 Cloverfield Lane in 2016, a thriller film that was even more well-received critically than the first. The second and latest movie was The Cloverfield Paradox, a sci-fi movie that connects the previous two, but was met with highly negative reviews. While another Cloverfield could fix its broken continuity, the direct sequel also needs to repair one key mistake within the franchise.
The Cloverfield Cinematic Universe Didn’t Make Up For The Missing Sequel
An Interesting Idea That Needed More Time To Develop
Custom Image by Colin McComrick
Although concrete news about the Cloverfield sequel hasn’t come about in over two years, a proper sequel for the franchise would make sense given its status as one of the best monster movies ever made.
Although a shared universe of different Cloverfield movies was proven strong with 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Cloverfield Paradox also showed how one bad movie could spoil the idea. Despite being an interesting direction for the franchise, a direct sequel would be the best follow-up, building atop what made the original movie so beloved in the first place. Even though the idea of different stories in the same universe was interesting, Cloverfield 2 being a direct sequel will help develop its established world much more directly.
Although concrete news about the Cloverfield sequel hasn’t come about in over two years, a proper sequel for the franchise would make sense given its status as one of the best monster movies ever made. With the movie seemingly still in development, perhaps more concrete information will be revealed when its potential production is nearing a start time. For now, though, the 16-year-old movie remains without a proper sequel, despite announcements for it and the potential of its universe.