Here in 2026, moviegoers like to make the complaint that there aren’t enough original, non-IP movies. And then when something applicable comes around like David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street, which is admittedly right in producer J.J. Abrams’ mystery-box wheelhouse, the Internet immediately tries to prove it actually IS part of an already existing IP, in this case the 2008 found-footage creature feature Cloverfield. We’re a weird species. In any case, months of theorizing are set to culminate in the sci-fi film releasing in theaters, where answers can at last be found.
Or perhaps not found in this case, as Abrams himself went on the record ahead of the dino-filled movie’s debut to shed some murky light on the matter. Speaking with THR, the filmmaker seemed to pour cold water all over the Cloverfield connective tissue that has kept some fans on the hook since at least March. As Abrams put it:
The only connection to our Cloverfield movies is that Ewan’s partner is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who was the star of 10 Cloverfield Lane, who we were very lucky to get to work with and who I adore. So there was that, but other than that, people are just making connections that they happen to see.
Kinda weird that instead of just saying “No connections” that he makes the meaningful leap to bring up the great Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who co-led the better-than-its-predecessor 10 Cloverfield Lane, which was filmed and made it essentially up to release without the public knowing that it was a stealth sequel. No real reason to bring up THE prime example of secret movie sequels in a statement that’s aiming to debunk such speculation.
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The key factor that fans started basing Cloverfield theories on comes from the Netflix movie The Cloverfield Paradox, which had the unique development of being turned into a Cloverfield sequel midway through, despite that not being the original plan. In that movie, a reference is made to a five-block area that disappears, and it’s presumed that the Oak Street neighborhood suddenly dealing with dinosaurs is that five-block stretch.
Beyond that, speculation has been pretty light, without many offering further ideas about what would happen in End of Oak Street that would confirm its placement as a Cloverfield sequel, nor ideas about why these characters are dealing with straight-up extinct creatures and nothing resembling the Large-Scale Aggressor that caused so much havoc in the O.G. movie. (Abrams told us that he got more Poltergeist vibes from the movie than Jurassic Park ones, despite all the dinosaurs, but that doesn’t present a clear throughline to Clover, either.)
Of course, while J.J. Abrams going on record to debunk cinematic connections between the two movies may convince some people that he’s telling the truth, others like the commenter below have a more conspiratorial take.
In Cloverfield Paradox they mention five blocks vanish, which is likely the neighborhood in End of Oak Street being transported. But End of Oak Street is a WB movie and Cloverfield is a Paramount movie, so despite Bad Robot making it; JJ Abrams could never publicly confirm it’s a Cloverfield movie.
@ManaByte
No one ever let a little thing like “completely different production companies” ruin connective tissue between projects, right? Or wait, that literally happens a lot, and is why it’s so hard to make a Batman/ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book adaptation happen. It’s one reason, anyway.
The End of Oak Street will be hitting theaters on August 14. Meanwhile, Cloverfield is streaming via Paramount+ subscription for anyone who wants to make it a double-feature with a car ride in the middle.