To paraphrase the original Clerks, Kevin Smith wasn’t even supposed to be here! He was just some guy in New Jersey at a dead-end job, until he maxed out his credit cards and made Clerks in 1994. That geek-savvy indie hit paved the way for everything that Smith has done since, including numerous films in which he reprised his role as Silent Bob. But there’s still room for at least one more story in the View Askewniverse, and it’s coming later this year with Clerks III.
The first two Clerks films borrowed heavily from Smith’s life, with Brian O’Halloran’s Dante Hicks as a stand-in for Smith himself. However, this movie puts Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) in Smith’s shoes, so to speak. Much like Smith himself in 2018, Randal suffers a heart attack that forces him to question the direction of his life. And it looks like this sequel is even more meta than Clerks II, because Randal decides to make a movie about his life. Essentially, he wants to be Kevin Smith. Whether Randal can find the same level of success remains to be seen.
Almost all of the Smith regulars are back for this one, including Jason Mewes as Jay, Marilyn Ghigliotti as Veronica Loughran, Rosario Dawson as Becky Scott, and Trevor Fehrman as Elias Grover. Even Ben Affleck came back for a cameo role as one of the characters he’s previously played in Smith’s films. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Austin Zajur, and Fred Armisen also have small roles in the film.
Smith once again wrote and directed the sequel, which will get a limited theatrical release from Lionsgate and Fathom events on September 13 and 15.
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