10 Movies That Weren't Meant To Be Sequels

10 Cloverfield Lane was conceived as a self-contained indie called The Cellar. The premise was pretty much the same, with a woman called Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) awakening in a bunker and being informed by a strange man called Howard (John Goodman) that she cannot leave since the air outside has been poisoned. As Howard grows increasingly unhinged, Michelle suspects her captor is hiding a dark secret from her.

Similarities with Cloverfield were recognised during production, compelling the producer, JJ Abrams, to incorporate the horror thriller into the Cloverfield universe. Apart from a subplot involving a character called Nate, the plot was mostly unchanged compared to the initial premise.

At first, this decision sounded like it couldn't work. Considering the first instalment was a found-footage creature feature, it was odd to turn the follow-up into a grounded thriller that focused on a human threat rather than an extra-terrestrial one.

But since Godzilla and Pacific Rim had been released several years prior, the creative team worried the kaiju angle had been overplayed. As a result, 10 Cloverfield Lane was perceived as a spiritual successor rather than a true sequel.