'Cloverfield 2' Not A Direct Sequel To 2008 Film? Second Trailer Expected To Be Out Soon

by Miguel Abesamis / Jan 25, 2016 01:34 PM EST

"Cloverfield 2" has been making a buzz since its unanticipated trailer debuted in theaters late last week. The first-look footage, which was attached to Michael Bay's "13: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi," left moviegoers wondering if J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot production company had actually developed a sequel to the 2008 thriller, "Cloverfield."

So is it a sequel? IGN reported that there's little in the "Cloverfield 2" trailer that can connect the film to the found-footage movie by producer Abrams and director Matt Reeves and Drew Goddard. But Abrams and Paramount released a statement claiming there's a link between the two.

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

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Live Free or Die Hard), who stars in the film alongside John Goodman (Flight) and John Gallagher, Jr. (The Newsroom), provided some details about the plot. She plays a woman who wakes up in a bunker where she's being kept by a stranger, played by Goodman.

"He tells me that basically the world is over outside because there's been a nuclear fall-out," the actress said in a separate interview with Collider. "It does have similarity to 'Faults,' in some ways, because you don't know who's telling the truth or who to believe," she referring to her indie film where she plays a woman who is kidnapped and kept in a room.

"There's a lot of, who's manipulating who, and all of that," she added. "Tonally it's very different, but it has some of those same themes.

Still, how "Cloverfield 2" exactly ties to the original film remains unknown. Even though Abrams says the movie is a "blood relative" of "Cloverfield," there's no guarantee that its a sequel or if they even share the same universe. Maybe we'll get some more answers when the second "Cloverfield 2" trailer drops.

"10 Cloverfield Lane" premieres on March 11.