Kevin Smith has confirmed that he will be resurrecting one of his most famous characters – Silent Bob – along with the much more vocal, knit-cap-wearing Jay, in a post on his Facebook page.
“This is not a drill!” Smith writes, alongside a photo of the cover page for his upcoming script about the dynamic duo. “This is an actual image from my laptop! Yes, Kids – Jay and Silent Bob are coming back!”
The candid post goes on to discuss what the writer/director/actor has been up to over the years, and why a Mallrats 2 or Clerks III can’t happen. Basically, he tried to pitch a Mallrats sequel to several networks but got rejected, while one of the four leads for Clerks III opted out of the movie. Smith also has sold both properties to “others,” which limits the material he can write.
Interestingly, while Smith no longer owns the rights to Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, or Dogma, he does, in fact, still own the two major characters of Jay, played by Jason Mewes, and Silent Bob, played by Smith himself.
The new film, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, will follow the men as they travel back to Hollywood to stop a reboot of the Bluntman & Chronic movie they so despised. Dubbed a “tongue-in-cheek, silly-ass satire,” Smith says it will poke fun at the recent trend toward series reboots. He promises plenty of cameos and “familiar faces.”
Released in 1994, Clerks was the first film to feature Jay and Silent Bob, the avid pot smokers who sell marijuana outside of a local convenience store. Jay is the more talkative, but rude and potty-mouthed of the pair, while Silent Bob, as his name implies, rarely says anything, relying mostly on hand gestures and facial expressions unless he really needs to speak up. Following Clerks, the characters appeared in several other films, including Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), and Clerks II (2006), among other appearances, as well as an animated series based on Clerks.
Smith currently stars in and serves as executive producer of the AMC series Comic Book Men, co-hosts the late night talk show Geeking Out, and co-hosts a weekly podcast called SModcast, among many other projects.
While Smith did not outright confirm it in his post, it’s assumed that Mewes will reprise his role as Jay in the upcoming film. While his last major role was in 2008’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Mewes has been co-hosting a weekly podcast with Smith called Jay & Silent Bob Get Old, where he discusses his past issues with drug addiction. He is also credited as a co-executive producer on Spoilers, a Hulu exclusive series, and has had a string of minor voice and acting roles over the years.
Shooting for Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is planned for some time in the summer.
