Kevin Smith fans, rejoice! Now that the View Askewniverse has been revived with Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, the acclaimed director has another installation for the fan favorite franchise up his sleeve. At last, Smith plans to complete the long-awaited trilogy that audiences never thought they’d see as at San Diego Comic-Con, he revealed that Clerks 3 is definitely happening.
This isn’t the first time the filmmaker has made a bold proclamation about the third entry in the series, though. Half a decade ago after finally securing the funds needed to shoot the project, he claimed that the next movie would be the Empire Strikes Back of the trilogy. The flick obviously never came to fruition but now, Smith has finally explained where he feels his first draft of the script went wrong and why this time he promises the feature will get done.
“When I wrote Clerks III, I wrote it during a weirder darker point in my life, and it’s kind of like the King Lear of our movies. I love it, it’s one of my favorite scripts, but it’s dark. It’s bleak, and it’s not what Dante and Randal deserve. We’re never going to make that version of Clerks III, but I’m going to write a different Clerks III and we’re going to make that f****** film, I promise. And in a world where we got to bring Ben [Affleck] back, I’ll be able to bring Jeff [Anderson] back.”
After Affleck and Smith had a falling out a couple of years ago, the duo reignited their friendship for Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. The director is confident that he can do the same with Jeff Anderson, too, who’s rumored to be the main reason why the third installment of Clerks never happened. The actor played the lovable slacker Randall in the first two films and his presence would definitely be needed for the completion of the trilogy to ever get off the ground.
Smith’s can-do attitude should definitely delight fans who want to see more of Dante and Randall’s wacky misadventures and with any luck, this script will be less dark and have some of the laugh-out-loud humor that audiences have come to expect from the eccentric filmmaker. Clerks 3 is still a long way from happening, but if all of his movies, comebacks, health scares and reconciliations have taught the world one thing, it’s that we should never bet against Kevin Smith.