J.J. Abrams Says ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ Not Connected to ‘Cloverfield’ the Way You Might Think

Paramount shocked the (film geek) world back in January by announcing the existence of 10 Cloverfield Lane just two months before it was scheduled to hit theaters. Since then the only thing we've learned about the Cloverfield sequel is that it's NOT A SEQUAL. 

Initially producer J.J. Abrams described 10 Cloverfield Lane as a "blood relative" of Cloverfield. So the internet took that to mean that, while the new film won't elaborate on the events or characters of Cloverfield, it would take place in the same universe. And most people just kind of assumed that whatever is going on outside the bunker we see in the trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane has something to do with the monsters we meet in Cloverfield. Maybe the events in the bunker in 10 Cloverfield Lane occur at roughly the same time as the events of Clovefield. Maybe they occur in the past, or the future. But it's gotta be the monsters, right? 

Unfortunately, that's not necessarily the case. In a new interview with Fandango, Abrams talks about the connection between Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane, and casts doubt on everything we think we might know. 

For the sake of simplicity I'm just going to string all his quotes together with ellipses:

This movie is very purposefully not called Cloverfield 2, because it's not Cloverfield 2. The association is clear and there are multiple connections—and there is a bigger idea at play for us with these movies and this connection...No [10 Cloverfield Lane] doesn't [take place at the same time as Cloverfield], but there's a larger thing at play with these connections. And the fun of it is that some of these connections—and there's a lot of them—are not the kind of connections you might think. So if you're approaching it as a literal sequel, you'll be surprised to see what this movie is. But while it's not what you might expect from a movie that has the name ‘Cloverfield' in it, I think you'll find that you'll understand the connection when you see the whole thing...The story of this movie – and it came to us originally as a spec that was very different in a lot of ways and an unrelated thing altogether – is definitely about different kinds of monsters. And while the Cloverfield monster isn't in this movie, there's a new monster and there's something else that happens. But I don't want to ruin the ending.

Dammit, J.J. Abrams.