Raithe

I wouldn't call it a soft reboot per se. It does follow-on in the sense that the squad was set up as shown in the previous film, and the majority of the members of the Squad who survived show up in this one. It's an indeterminate time after those events, but they won't really mention them. At least, that's the impression they seem to be giving.

Sequel.

"If the votes didn't matter, would they be trying so hard to steal them?"

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1414638/AstraZeneca-EU-vaccine-row-warning-Pfizer-profit-Covid19-jab-von-der-Leyen-latest-VN

Jessica Walter

https://whalescientists.com/russian-ship-entrapped-belugas/

You poor fools. On other matters of weird interest: Atlas Obscura - Why the Soviets sponsored a doomed expedition to a hollow earth kingdom