The Cloverfield franchise has always been a bit tough to pin down, with marketing being a fully integrated part of the strangeness of the series. However, it looks like we may be getting a real, clear, look at the newest film very soon. One rumor is that we could get the first trailer for Cloverfield 3 or God Particle or whatever it's called, this Sunday during Super Bowl LII. It's also being reported that said trailer will be presented by Netflix.
While not knowing exactly what's going on with a Cloverfield movie is standard operating procedure, the second film in the franchise saw a trailer debut in theaters without anybody knowing it was happening, this third entry is shrouded in even more mystery. The film was supposed to debut in theaters this Friday, before being officially pushed back to April only a few weeks ago. Most recently, it has been reported that the movie might actually debut on Netflix rather than in theaters and the report from Deadline would seem to confirm that will be the case.
Netflix is no stranger to spending the big bucks on Super Bowl ad space as last year they debuted the trailer for the second season of Stranger Things during the big game. There's a good chance Netflix will be advertising something during the game, and if the Cloverfield 3 deal has happened, it would certainly make sense for that to be the thing to advertise.
If Netflix has picked up the distribution rights to the new Cloverfield movie, it means that April 20 theatrical release date is meaningless. Which makes one wonder when the movie might actually debut. A new trailer will certainly include that information, but with the instant availability of films on Netflix, it would be a very Cloverfield thing to do to move up the release date and surprise fans. I wouldn't be shocked if a Super Bowl trailer informed the audience that the film would be available to stream as soon as the football game was over. Or, if Netflix really wanted to disrupt things, the ad could be timed in such a way that the film would start streaming right after it aired. Depending on the state of the game, people might be willing to turn it off and watch a movie instead.
Of course, even though we might see a trailer, we only have a limited idea what we might see. The script for God Particle was about astronauts using a particle accelerator in space, and as far as we know that basic story remains intact, but exactly what the film is about isn't clear. There's also the question of title. It will likely be changed to include the word Cloverfield somewhere in it, if not, half the people watching the ad won't realize what it is they're seeing. We may not even know we're watching the trailer until we see the title at the end.
