‘Cloverfield’ Sequel ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ Trailer Drops! J.J. Abrams’ Mystery Box Continues

A Cloverfield sequel has been rumored for quite some time, ever since the found-footage monster film opened in January of 2008. It seems the idea for a sequel has never left the mind of J.J. Abrams, and the mystery box still seems to be in full effect with the out-of-nowhere release of a trailer for the movie set to release on March 11. 10 Cloverfield Lane is Cloverfield‘s “blood relative,” according to Abrams in a statement to Collider.

John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and John Gallagher Jr. appear to make up the cast for this film; at least, those are the only three faces viewers get to see in the trailer. For all audiences know, dozens more could be in the film and may be revealed in later trailers. But, this one begins simply enough, with the three playing board games in what looks like an underground cellar decorated to resemble a home of a loving family. Right off the bat, the found-footage direction style of the first Cloverfield is nowhere to be found, as this appears to be shot like a conventional narrative.

Things start to become tense, as Winstead and Gallagher seem quite cautious of Goodman’s character as trust seemingly begins to fall apart. Winstead climbs up toward the entrance to escape, but is being told not to by Goodman, “Don’t open that door – you’re going to get all of us killed!” She has a look of horror on her face when she sees the outside world, an image that is not shown to the audience, as the screen goes to black with Goodman saying, “something’s coming.”

10 Cloverfield Lane was produced by Abrams and directed by Dan Trachtenberg, written by Matt Stuecken, Josh Campbell and Damien Chazelle.

“The idea came up a long time ago during production. We wanted to make it a blood relative of Cloverfield,” Abrams said. “The idea was developed over time. We wanted to hold back the title for as long as possible.”

While promoting the independent film Faults, Winstead revealed that the story for this film centers on a woman being kept in an underground cellar by a complete stranger.

“He tells me that basically the world is over outside because there’s been a nuclear fall-out. It does have similarity to Faults, in some ways, because you don’t know who’s telling the truth or who to believe. There’s a lot of, who’s manipulating who, and all of that. Tonally, it’s very different, but it has some of those same themes.”

10 Cloverfield Lane may be taking place years after the incident in the first Cloverfield film, but that has yet to be confirmed. As far as a timeline for this film and when exactly it’s taking place, that information is being kept under wraps. The trailer for this Cloverfield follow-up apparently debuted during some recent screenings of Michael Bay’s newest film 13 Hours.

Dan Trachtenberg made some waves online in 2011 when he released a Portal-inspired short film on YouTube titled “Portal: No Escape.” 10 Cloverfield Lane will be his first feature film and even he has had to keep quiet on what he has been working on.

Trachtenberg had been hired to make a movie called Valencia for J.J. Abram’s film company, Bad Robot, and the plot details were just as Winstead described. However, a hint of it being something related to Cloverfield was nowhere to be found, until now. J.J.’s mystery box does its magic yet again, only a few months after having released Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The month of March is going to be quite a hectic time for geeks everywhere. Not only is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice being released the same weekend as Marvel/Netflix’s Daredevil, fanboys can also add 10 Cloverfield Lane to their schedule.

[Photo via Paramount Pictures]