John Goodman Stars in the Cloverfield Spinoff No One Asked For

OK, fess up. Which one of you told J.J. Abrams that we wanted more Cloverfield? Because now he’s gone and made the damn thing and you should absolutely feel bad about yourself. We could have had another Pacific Rim movie. Instead that silly Cloverfield monster is coming back to theatres.

The unexpected first trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane dropped before last night’s screenings of Michael Bay’s 13 Hours, and if there’s a silver lining, at least the marketing campaign will be brief. The movie is slated to hit on March 11, and stars John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and John Gallagher, Jr. as three individuals stuck underground trying to wait out a (presumably) monster-related disaster.

All jokes aside, the trailer looks like the best version of a bad idea, stripping away the insufferable found footage conceit to focus on the interpersonal drama (and the gradually fraying nerves) of one small family unit. The film seems to be set exclusively within a nice, homey bunker during the apocalypse, while the tagline – “Monsters come in many forms” – would indicate that it’s more about the psychological fallout rather than survival. That should make for a far more interesting movie, especially when the trailer seems to be setting up John Goodman to be the monster.

10 Cloverfield Lane is directed by Dan Trachtenberg and produced by J.J. Abrams. Maybe this time there will be more to the movie than a protracted game of hide the monster.