‘Cloverfield’ Crossover: J.J. Abrams Considered Bringing Together ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ and ‘Paradox’
Zack Sharf
Anyone hoping to see a movie with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the lead roles will probably be upset when they hear J.J. Abrams briefly considered bringing together their “Cloverfield” characters for a new crossover installment. Although, seeing as “The Cloverfield Paradox” has disappointed many fans since its surprise release Super Bowl Sunday, it’s probably in the franchise’s best interest that it ultimately turned down a potential crossover.
During a recent Facebook Q&A promoting “Paradox,” producer Abrams revealed that he flirted with the idea of a film that would find Mbatha-Raw’s astronaut-scientist Ava Hamilton coming into contact with Winstead’s Michelle from “10 Cloverfield Lane.” Neither of the two “Cloverfield” follow-up films have included crossover characters, so the idea would’ve been a groundbreaking one for the growing “Cloverfield” franchise.
“We’ve talked about versions of things,” Abrams said about potential crossovers within the universe. “When we did ’10 Cloverfield Lane,’ we were thinking Michelle – the character Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays – it’s such a sort of weird origin story of this kind of incredibly, I think, awesome heroine. The idea of following her story is really cool. And then at one point, we were like, ‘You know what would be really cool? What if they crossed paths with Gugu [Mbatha-Raw]’s character Ava?’
“You start to think of ‘what ifs,’” he continued. “And I think the bigger ideas that we’ve had about where this thing goes haven’t necessarily been those ideas, but they’ve kind of been fun theoretical offshoots.”
So there you have it, any crossover idea has remained a “theoretical offshoot” and not anything concrete that could actually be written. The way the “Cloverfield” franchise has evolved is by taking films that are already in production and making them “Cloverfield” movies through small connections to the larger universe. It appears that’s how the franchise will remain for now.
“The idea for the ‘Cloverfield’ series was not so much that it be this narrative throughline, but more that they be these really fun sort of thrill rides,” Abrams reiterated during the discussion. “Like, if you imagine an amusement park, that’s a ‘Cloverfield’ amusement park, and every ride has a different purpose, but they all connect in some way or another.”
Despite the lackluster response to “Paradox,” the “Cloverfield” franchise already has plans to continue with a fourth installment. The next film is already done filming and is reportedly called “Overload,” or at least that was the name being used during production. Wyatt Russell and Jovan Adepo play American paratroopers who sneak into a German military facility on the eve of D-Day and discover a secret Nazi operation that somehow involves the supernatural.
“The Cloverfield Paradox” is now streaming on Netflix.
