Did JJ Abrams just release a trailer for a secret CLOVERFIELD sequel?

JJ Abrams is a sneaky bastard. Back in 2007 audience members waiting to watch Michael Bay’s Transformers were suddenly greeted by a very mysterious teaser trailer for some unnamed found footage monster movie. The only clues as to what this was about were JJ Abrams’ name and a release date. Eventually, after multiple teases and viral marketing, we learned that it was actually Cloverfield, the 2008 Matt Reeves directed,  Drew Goddard scripted monster movie which Abrams produced.

And now it looks like we may just be in the start of another secretive campaign for a new movie about… Well, I don’t know for sure actually. We’ve heard absolutely nothing about this new movie from Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions until yesterday, when once again, audience members waiting to watch a Michael Bay movie – 13 Hours this time – were suddenly greeted by a very mysterious teaser trailer with next to know info given about the movie other than JJ Abrams’ name and the title, 10 Cloverfield Lane. Yes, CLOVERFIELD.

After people started asking about exactly what this was, a leaked bootleg copy of the trailer showed up online. Whether as a response to that leak or maybe just the next step in their devious advertising campaign, Paramount and Bad Robot have now officially released it online. You can watch it below, with some more info after the jump.

Okay, that looks damn intense. And also tells us very little. However the underground bunker setup and the cast of John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr. actually points to a different movie directed by Dan Trachtenberg, the guy behind the incredible videogame fan film Portal: No Escape which had become an internet sensation a few years back. Back in 2014 it had been announced that off the back of Portal: No Escape‘s popularity, Bad Robot had tapped him to direct a feature film, scripted by Josh Campbell, Matt Steucken and Dan Casey, first codenamed The First Cellar and then codenamed Valencia.

This movie has to do with a lady who gets in a car accident and is knocked unconscious. When she comes to, she’s in an underground bunker with a man who claims that he rescued her from the car wreck, and is now protecting her as a nuclear war has erupted on the surface while she was out. But could it be that the “nuclear war” is actually just a gigantic monster attacking the city? In other words, is this some kind of Cloverfield sequel?

Abrams, as always, isn’t spilling the beans, but he confirmed the link between the two movies when he released an official statement along with the trailer:

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

A “blood relative”? Hmmm…. intriguing. I’ve always loved Cloverfield – one of the few movies where the found footage mechanic worked really successfully – and there’s been talk of a sequel for ages now. It doesn’t look like this is a direct followup, but I’m happy to get anything really. Especially with the involvement of Trachtenberg who really, really impressed me with his short film work.

And we won’t even have to wait too long to find out exactly what this is, as 10 Cloverfield Lane is being released in just over two months on March 11, 2016. Yes, they really kept this thing a secret until the last moment!

So what do you guys think? Will this be a Cloverfield sequel or is Abrams once again just playing mind games with us? Do you even want a Cloverfield sequel? Sound off in the comments below.

Last Updated: January 15, 2016