JJ Abrams’ next feature is starting to round out its cast. Following news of Glen Powell’s involvement earlier this year, it’s said Jenna Ortega is now in talks to join the project. Little is known about the movie itself, other than the fact Abrams sold it to Warner Bros., and it’s being produced under Abrams’ Bad Robot banner. Abrams also wrote the script for the feature.
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Because the involvement of Bad Robot, speculation may inevitably pick up about the project being the long-awaited direct sequel to Cloverfield. The cult classic has since had two in-world sequels—10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox—although no direct follow-up has been made. Matt Reeves directed the first entry in the franchise, and told us last year he’d love to return to the franchise at some point.
“I have no idea,” Reeves said about a potential return to the series. “I’m super excited about us doing more, and I can’t give you information about that of course because that’s the way Cloverfield works. To be honest with you, you never know what you’re going to do. Even though my work is all genre work, I have to feel something personal about it. Cloverfield is very much about my anxieties.”
He continued, “That was the process that drew me in, that’s what taught me how to shoot it, how to talk to the actors about what it was, because it was like trying to ground it from that perspective and make something crazy, fantastical, and genre, also feel real…I think if another story were to present itself where I was like, ‘Gosh I have to tell that story.’ It’s not impossible. I wouldn’t say that’s a for sure thing, but I would never say never.”
All that said it’s possible this Abrams project has nothing to do with the Cloverfield franchise and is an entirely new IP. Deadline, which first reported the news, says the only thing known about it is that the plot does not involve time-traveling.