Brace yourselves, View Askewniverse fans — it looks like the long awaited Clerks III is officially back on!
Kevin Smith may have put the third installment of the Clerks trilogy on the back burner, but the good news is it looks as though production on the threequel is officially back on.
The director and writer took to Instagram on Tuesday (October 1) to announce to View Askewniverse lovers far and wide that he’s in the process of writing a new screenplay for Clerks III.
The good news doesn’t stop there. In addition, Smith revealed that the film’s original stars, Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson, are both on board to return.
The fact that Anderson, specifically, is on board to return is a pretty big deal — especially given that when Smith was working on Clerks III the first time around, Anderson wasn’t interested in coming back.
In the lengthy caption of his Instagram post, Smith spoke candidly about how reconnecting with Ben Affleck had him looking to patch things up with Anderson.
He got his chance while singing a slew of skateboards alongside Anderson (and frequent collaborator Jason Mewes) at Leelo Multiprops over the weekend.
“After mending fences with Ben Affleck earlier this year, I was hoping for a chance to do the same with Jeff— so huge thanks to Leelo Multiprops for getting us all in the same room. But bigger thanks ever go to Jeff, for being receptive to the idea at all,” wrote Smith.
As for Clerks III, Smith promised fans that it’ll serve as the long-awaited conclusion to the saga.
“It’ll be a movie about how you’re never too old to completely change your life. It’ll be a movie about how a decades-spanning friendship finally confronts the future. It’ll be a movie that brings us back to the beginning— a return to the cradle of civilization in the great state of New Jersey,” said Smith.
“This won’t be the old script we almost made a few years back: this is a completely new screenplay that I just started writing last night! And so far, it’s like a dream come true!”
Smith didn’t give any insight with regards to when we might see Clerks III hit the big screen, but the fact that he’s so inspired to dive into the screenplay seems like a pretty great sign to us!
Coming up next, fans can catch Smith, Mewes, and a bunch of other View Askew familiar faces starring in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, due out in theaters on October 17.