1994’s Clerks remains one of the greatest indie success stories of all time. Though it was made for peanuts in black and white and shot in the convenience stores Kevin Smith actually worked in, word-of-mouth quickly grew and it was picked up by Miramax, eventually becoming a global hit after its home release. Now, almost thirty years later, Smith is finally teasing the long-awaited release of Clerks III.
Speaking at WonderCon, the filmmaker responded upon being asked when the sequel is coming out:
“This fall, I believe, Nothing is official, but…they’ve referenced the fall. At one point they were talking about July and I’ll be honest with you, it’s not a summer movie by any stretch of the imagination. So it feels better for the fall. Early fall, is what I’ve heard. But yes, it’s coming and it’s f*cking dope. But I’ve seen the movie, it’s done. We handed it off to Lionsgate and now the marketing has begun. It turned out wonderful.”
In a fun echo of the original, everything we’ve heard about Clerks III indicates it’ll loosely dramatize aspects of Smith’s real life, specifically the 2018 heart attack that very nearly killed him. This seems to have been a life-changing moment for the director, causing him to become a strict vegan and lose a lot of weight.
Clerks III will see Jeff Anderson’s Randal Parks also suffering a heart attack and deciding his life needs a change in direction. This will apparently see him deciding to make an indie movie about the misery of working in retail service, which obviously maps neatly onto the original movie.
Smith has been on a big creative upswing after his recovery. Other than his upcoming movie, he has created Masters of the Universe: Revelation for Netflix and appeared as Merv Pumpkinhead in the audiobook of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. And, of course, he’s also still releasing some very fun podcasts, with his latest being the enormously entertaining Jay & Silent Bob Get Old with Jason Mewes.
More on an exact release date for Clerks III when we hear it. Here’s hoping that we will be getting a trailer soon.
