During last night’s Super Bowl LII,  soon to be world conquering streaming platform Netflix released a trailer for the latest installment in the Cloverfield film series, The Cloverfield Paradox.

The film had long been discussed as being the secret third installment in the ever expanding Cloverfield film universe, preceded by Cloverfield, and 10 Cloverfield Lane. What Netflix did in all of its marketing glory was make the movie available the same night of the Super Bowl. This is huge.  For Netflix to be the sole distributor for one of the most highly anticipated sci-fi films is major. Adding more to that, here are a couple of reasons for why you should be even more hyped to check out this movie.

1. Though we have Jordan Peele writing/ directing last years Oscar nominated Get Out, Ryan Coogler co-writing/ directing this month’s Black Panther, and Ava DuVernay directing the upcoming A Wrinkle in Time, Hollywood seems to still have this idea that black folks don’t know how to write/ direct quality big budget sci-fi/ fantasy/ horror. As all of the readers of the website know, that’s some hot a@#/ outdated line of thinking.
   With directors like Nigerian-American Julius Onah helming one of the most heavily anticipated installments for the popular sci-fi universe of Cloverfield, including the other films that were mentioned above, Hollywood is now realizing something that black speculative fiction fans have long realized: we got this just like anyone else. Heck, we’ve been doing this on the indie level for a while now.
2. Netflix using the Super Bowl to reveal this film is huge. With an estimated 111.3 viewers for last years football championship, all eyes were plastered on whatever $5 million/ 30 second advertisements were scheduled to drop last night. Add to this that major film studio Paramount Pictures decided to distribute the film through the streaming service is a game changer, in an industry where the discussion of Netflix’s role of releasing such high profile films is a constant one.
3. This film is being produced by JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions. Uber genre producer/ director/ screenwriter JJ Abrams. With the backing of this popular production company, The Cloverfield Paradox is slated to make a huge splash on its release, on one of the world’s largest streaming platforms.
4. This is that geek ‘ish we love. 🙂 For black speculative fiction fans we’re living in a golden age when it comes to  solid genre choices to be found over a variety of mediums. On both the indie and mainstream fronts, whether its prose, graphic novels, film, television, video games, etc. this is a glorious time to be a fan. Leaning back towards point #1, people of African descent are showing that we have always, and will always contribute our imaginations to this ever growing genre.
5. Ava DuVernay is hyped as heck about it. 🙂

Robert Jeffrey II is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in such publications as UVC Magazine, JaDore Magazine, BlackSci-Fi.com, and The Atlanta Voice Newspaper.He was chosen as a participant in the DC Comics Class of 2017 Writers Workshop . He is a regular contributor for the Tessera Guild, and his comic book work includes client work for the Centers for Disease Control, and Nitto Tires. His comic book writing includes work on such award winning/ nominated series as his creator owned series Route 3, Radio Free Amerika, Terminus Team-Up, and Soul of Suw. He’s yet to fulfill his dream of pop-locking to save a community center.

Head to his website here, and you can follow him on Twitter @SYNCHRKJ, Tumblr @robdawriter , and Instagram @robertk.jeffrey.