The producers of A Quiet Place state the movie was never intended to be a Cloverfield sequel. The premise of A Quiet Place finds a family forced to live in near total silence in order to avoid creatures who hunt by sound. The movie has received praise for its unique premise, taut suspense and the performances, and strong word of mouth carried it to an impressive $71 million box office haul worldwide during its opening weekend.
A Quiet Place was distributed by Paramount, who also owns the Cloverfield franchise. Shortly after the release of the movie's trailer, a fan theory cropped up claiming A Quiet Place was a secret Cloverfield sequel, which audiences would only learn after seeing the movie. Evidence in support of the theory included the creatures in A Quiet Place resembling those seen in Cloverfield, and that director/star John Krasinski actually left The Cloverfield Paradox to make the movie.
Related: A Quiet Place Would Have Been A Better Cloverfield Movie Than Paradox
Given the unusual marketing strategies of previous Cloverfield movies, the theory seemed somewhat plausible, but A Quiet Place itself has no ties to the series. In a recent interview with Cinema Blend, producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form confirmed it was never intended to be a stealth sequel, and they don't know where that theory came from.
Fuller: We just kind of laughed about it, because I have no idea how that started. This was never going to be a Cloverfield movie. It was a spec script that we bought at Paramount 18 months ago and never had anything to do with Cloverfield. I don't know where that started. No one ever asked us about it. It was just one of those things where the first teaser was released and people started to play the game. I think it kind of went away when the Cloverfield movie, you know the Paradox, came out. No one's really brought it up since then but I have no idea where that started.
The producers are also adamant their movie exists in a separate universe.
Form: That's not our world. I mean that's J.J.'s world and he's carefully curating that Cloverfield world. So I don't even know if this is something that he would want.
Fuller: No but I think this is our world. I think John has created this amazing world with these characters and I think A Quiet Place definitely lives on its own.
The original Cloverfield was a unique take on the Kaiju genre, depicting a giant monster rampaging through a city from the viewpoint of citizens on the ground. The movie's memorable marketing campaign helped it become a success, but while a direct sequel was teased for years, it never arrived. Producer J.J. Abrams surprised everyone with the sudden announcement of 10 Cloverfield Lane, a semi-sequel following a new set of characters. It turns out Abrams took a movie called The Celler and retrofitted it to become part of the series, and his vision for the series was to take movies with strong concepts and make an anthology series under the Cloverfield banner.
From that perspective, it's easy to see how A Quiet Place could have been refitted to become part of the Cloverfield franchise, and writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck recently admitted they briefly considered making their spec script part of Abrams series. That said, they also stated they're glad the movie got to stand on its own, and judging by its box office success thus far, it seems audiences didn't need the franchise connection either.
More: A Quiet Place Writers Considered Making It A Cloverfield Movie
Source: Cinema Blend
