Wyatt Russell, Jovan Adepo Cast in Bad Robot’s ‘Overlord,’ Which Might Be Another ‘Cloverfield’ Movie
10 Cloverfield Lane managed something virtually impossible in modern Hollywood: Its plot and connection to 2008’s Cloverfield was kept a complete secret up to the day of its trailer release, and even then there was no way to know just how it connected to the previous film until people went to the theater to see it. But, now that the cat’s out of the bag, everyone is looking for possible Cloverfield connections in the next slate of Bad Robot movies coming out in the next few years. Today, we might have just found another one.
In a seemingly innocuous casting announcement posted by the Tracking Board’s Jeff Sneider, two actors have joined the J.J. Abrams-produced Overlord, which is described as a World War II movie with a mysterious supernatural twist: Fences’ Jovan Adepo and Wyatt Russell, who charmed his way through Everybody Wants Some!! Within this casting announcement is a short synopsis of the movie, which reads:
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 against supernatural forces, part of a Nazi experiment.
The first major clue that Overlord might connect to the Clover-verse is the fact that it’s also produced by Lindsey Weber, who produced 10 Cloverfield Lane. It could be that Weber likes producing Bad Robot properties now, of it could mean Overlord has deeper ties to Cloverfield than it may seem.
The second clue, and a hat tip to /Film’s Ben Pearson for doing the digging on this one, is the existence of a fictional Japanese deep-sea drilling company called Tagruato, which features into both Cloverfield movies — but not so that you’d notice it. According to Cloverpedia, Tagruato is the parent company of Bold Futura, which John Goodman’s character in 10 Cloverfield Lane used to work for, and which is a technology manufacturer for the military and for space exploration companies. The thing that ties all this in with Overlord is how Tagruato’s Cloverpedia page lists its origins as beginning in 1945 — the same year Japan surrendered World War II. If Overlord is a Cloverfield movie, we might be seeing the origins of Tagruato, and how it began in the midst of one of the greatest wars in human history.
None of this has been confirmed, of course, but it would be a fascinating way to use the loosest of connections within movies to create a franchise. Most of the criticism leveled at 10 Cloverfield Lane is that it would have worked just fine as a movie all on its own, and it was originally its own standalone thing, with the alien stuff tacked on at the end as a way to subtly build a universe. But this Overlord plan may work a little better because it isn’t an overt connection to a franchise, and you won’t have to have seen both previous movies to want to go see it.
It’s still up for debate whether another of Bad Robot’s upcoming movies — God Particle — is a Cloverfield movie too, but the clues, small as they are, are there. Overlord seems to have more of a case for being a part of the universe, as it’s tougher to connect God Particle’s synopsis to what we already know, but it’ll be interesting to see any of these theories are correct. Knowing Bad Robot’s way of marketing, we may not find out for sure until we’re seated in the theater.
God Particle hits theaters October 27. Overlord doesn’t yet have a release date.