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 fivemovies in the Monsterverse, starring Godzilla and King Kong, as well as media in thePacific Rimfranchise. However, one of the best ever made wasCloverfield, a found footage movie about a giant creature attacking New York City during a night of terror.
Cloverfieldreferences other monster movieswhile 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 spawningmultipleCloverfieldmovies, a direct sequel to the 2008 original has never been made.
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
At CinemaCon in April 2018, franchise producer J.J. AbramsconfirmedCloverfield 2was in development, acting as a direct sequel to the original movie. By 2021, it was confirmedthe 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 movieswith different storylines that all connected to one another. The first of these was10 Cloverfield Lanein 2016, a thriller film that was even more well-received critically than the first. The second and latest movie wasThe Cloverfield Paradox, a sci-fi movie that connects the previous two, but was met with highly negative reviews. While anotherCloverfieldcould 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
Although concrete news about theCloverfieldsequel 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 differentCloverfieldmovies was proven strong with10 Cloverfield Lane,The Cloverfield Paradoxalso 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 2being a direct sequel will help develop its established world much more directly.
Although concrete news about theCloverfieldsequel hasn’t come aboutin 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.
Will There Be Another Movie In The Cloverfield Universe?
If It’s Still Being Worked On, It Might Not Arrive For A While
Although there are plans for a sequel and plenty ofstorylines forCloverfield 2to explore, the lack of any concrete news makes it seem like the upcoming movie isn’t going to come out for quite some time. This may partially involve trying to craft a story that works as a sequel to the original without ignoring the events of10 Cloverfield LaneandThe Cloverfield Paradox. Given all three movies also had Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) that offered more lore to the universe,the sequel will need to keep all of these details aligned no matter the story.
In 2023,Cloverfielddirector Matt Reeves claimed the original monster, Clover, was an alien, despite the original ARG revealing it came from the ocean, showing how the details still need to be ironed out.
Although the franchise’s status remains shrouded in mystery,thenewCloverfieldsequelmay not even be directly announced until the movie is complete.10 Cloverfield Lanedidn’t get announced until January 2016, two months before the film came to theaters, whileThe Cloverfield Paradoxhad a surprise Netflix release on June 01, 2025. This same type of marketing could be used for the next movie, perhaps with a corresponding online ARG that hints at what exactly the next movie is going to be about.
What The Ideal Cloverfield Sequel Should Have Looked Like
A Direct Sequel Should Have Followed The Aftermath Of The Original
If a direct sequel toCloverfieldhad been made, then the most obvious choice for its story would be following the aftermath of the original movie. Aligning with the filmmaking differences seen in the franchise’s other movies,the sequel could stray away from the found footage genre in order to tell a larger story, revealing more details about Clover’s rampage across New York City. In 2023, rumors floated around thatCloverfield 2would be about a virus, a significant change that could have still followed the original, perhaps focusing on the smaller creatures.
Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield 4 Idea Would Confuse The Franchise Even More
For Cloverfield’s 15th anniversary, Matt Reeves has expressed an idea for a new Cloverfield project, but this would only further confuse the timeline.
Another possibility would be to have it take place at the same time as the first movie, following a different group of people in New York City with their own camera trained on the monster. While it would risk being a retread of the original,it could also reveal new details about the attack by giving it a different perspective.Perhaps the group of people would be saved by the military sooner or have connections to the operation, allowing them to gather more information without breaking from the first film’s formula.
Another group of people filming the attack were seen in the originalCloverfield, making another found footage movie in the franchise a possibility.
A new installment could also tie into thestory of10 Cloverfield LaneorThe Cloverfield Paradox, situating the film directly within the continuity of the other installments. While there could be some confusion surrounding their connections depending on how concrete they are, doing so would help the franchise feel more aligned between movies, given the current state of its messy continuity. Thankfully,this could be done with small nods to those previous films, making it so the central focus is still on continuing the story of the first one.
With plenty of possibilities for a sequel, it’s surprisingCloverfieldstill hasn’t continued beyond movies set within the same universe. This coupled with its initial success makes it hard to believe a direct follow-up still hasn’t happened. With no concrete news available for over two years,it’s impossible to tell if the second installment is still going to come out. But, given the core success of the franchise so far, it would be shocking if it were left behind without more of its world getting explored.
Cloverfield
Cast
Directed by Matt Reeves, Cloverfield is a found-footage disaster movie that follows a group of people seeking safety during a state of emergency. When New York City is attacked by an unknown monstrous entity, chaos ensues. A group of friends document their attempts to flee the city and find sanctuary from an onslaught of monsters on a handheld camcorder - footage which is designated as an account of the “Cloverfield” incident.
