Is Bad Robot's WWII Thriller Overlord Really Cloverfield 4?

Things just got a little more interesting for fans of theCloverfielduniverse.10 Cloverfield Laneofficially opened the door for a ton ofCloverfieldoffshoots and sequels in the coming years and it looks like we may now know what to expect from theCloverfieldfranchise in the future. Paramount’s recently announced WWII dramaOverlordmay actually be the next movie to be included as part of the crazy monster/alien cinematic universe that is the brainchild ofJ.J. Abrams.

Thanks to aTweetfrom The Tracking Board’sJeff Sneider, we got quite a bit of interesting information about Paramount and Bad Robot’s upcoming movieOverlord. On the surface, the movie seems like a pretty straightforward war drama, but the synopsis for the movie seems to imply that there could be more than meets they eye here. Specifically,Overlordcould wind up being connected to the “Cloververse.” Here is the synopsis forOverlord.

“On the eve of D-Day, American paratroopers are dropped behind enemy lines to carry out a mission crucial to the invasion’s success. But as they approach their target, they begin to realize there is more going on in this Nazi-occupied village than a simple military operation. They find themselves fighting againstsupernatural forces, part of a Nazi experiment.”

It is that little bit at the end about “more going on” that is just enough for us to think thatOverlordis more or less a working title at this point. Similarly, the upcoming untitledCloverfield movie(which was formerly known asGod Particle) started out as a seemingly isolated sci-fi movie that was just an under-the-radar, non-franchise movie. It was later revealed that the movie was actually going to be the third movie in the expandingCloverfielduniverse.J.J. Abramsand Bad Robot were able to disguise10 Cloverfield Laneas a secret sequel of sorts by calling itThe Cellarand attaching a somewhat unknown director inDan Trachtenberg. It wasn’t until the trailer was released that the cat was out of the bag. But now we are wise to the game and it will be much harder to pull a fast one over on fans in the same way again.

It was also revealed thatJovan Adepo(Fences) andWyatt Russell(22 Jump Street) are set to star as the leads inOverlord. The movie is going to be directed byJulius Avery(Son of a Gun) with a script byBilly Ray(Captain Phillips) andMark L. Smith(The Revenant). But perhaps the most interesting bit for those who like the idea of aCloverfieldmovie set during WWII is thatLindsey Weber, who also produced10 Cloverfield Lane, will be producing this movie alongsideJ.J. Abrams. So enough of theCloverfieldteam is in place to point us in that direction.

In bothCloverfieldand10 Cloverfield Lanethere was a heavy military presence. It was never really implied that the government had anything to do with the creatures but sinceOverlordwill take place during WWII, that would be another common thread to pull on. We’ll have to wait and see if this winds up being true but there is more than enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that a fourthCloverfieldmovie is now in the works.Overlordis set to start filming in May for a likely release in 2018. TheCloverfieldmovie formerly known asGod Particleis set for release onOctober 27.