When Overlord was first announced, there was speculation that it was part of the ‘Cloverfield‘ franchise. Largely because it was a monster movie produced by J.J. Abrams through his studio Bad Robot. Who have form on that front, revealing pretty late in the day that both 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox were part of the burgeoning Cloververse.
Cloververse Rumours That Won’t Go Away
Rumours persisted that this period piece — which hits screens next week, and pits American GIs against Nazi zombies during WWII — would take audiences back in the Clover-timeline to see how the features’ creatures were first birthed.
Back in April, Abrams recorded a video for the CinemaCon audience in which he stated that the film was not part of that universe. But with those earlier films having their original scripts retooled to fit the franchise, and with Bad Robot surprising audiences whenever they can, the speculation continued.
Until that is, the film premiered at Fantastic Fest, and audiences saw with their own eyes that there’s no connection, and Overlord is simply a standalone sci-fi horror. That kicks all kinds of ass.
Overlord Director Has the Last Word
FANDOM sat down with the film’s director Julius Avery the morning after that screening, and asked if there was any intention of making his movie part of the Cloververse, at any point. His answer — which can be viewed in the video above — was pretty definitive, blaming wishful thinking on the part of the fans.
“It never was a Cloverfield movie,” Avery explained. “It was originally a pitch by [screenwriter] Billy Ray that was called Overlord. People see the Bad Robot logo and they want to make it a Cloverfield film. Because it’s a really cool franchise, why not? But this was never a Cloverfield movie.”
We also spoke to Avery about a very cool Inglourious Basterds Easter Egg in the movie, and discussed how and why Overlord became Bad Robot’s first R-rated movie. Both videos can be viewed below, followed by our review of the movie…