Kevin Smith first claimed to be working on a follow-up to Mallrats back in 2015, so it makes sense that the project has gone through different guises in that time. After lengthy delays and setbacks, its current incarnation, dubbed Twilight of the Mallrats, sounds like it’s coming along nicely. According to Smith, the long-awaited sequel will follow the cast of the original in an age where the mall has become a “dying behemoth,” but that wasn’t always the movie we were getting.
During an appearance on IMDb’s Movies That Changed My Life podcast, the filmmaker revealed that the first script he wrote for Mallrats 2 was actually a Die Hard homage in which the mall was besieged by Canadian terrorists. Apparently, his original plan was to have Brody take on a John McClane-esque role when his beloved shopping centre comes under threat, but this idea has been canned in favour of something closer to the original film.
Interestingly, though, Smith confirmed that large chunks of that script were salvaged and worked into Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, saying:
“This one is the first draft of Twilight of the Mallrats, but it’s the second Mallrats sequel script that I’ve written. There was one I wrote years ago that was called Mallrats 2: Die Hard in a Mall. Most of that wound up becoming Jay & Silent Bob Reboot.
The whole third act of Jay & Silent Bob Reboot was the whole third act of Mallrats 2. They took over the mall instead of Chronic Con, and in Jay & Silent Bob Reboot they were Russian terrorists but in Mallrats 2 they were Canadian terrorists taking over the mall, and Brody was forced into this John McClane type position. It’s fun, but I would look at it and be like, if you were a fan of Mallrats and 25 years later somebody was doing it again, you’d be like, ‘What would that be like,’ and you walked in and it was Die Hard, you might be like, ‘Why call it Mallrats? Just call it something else and start from scratch.”
As for the version of Mallrats 2Â that will go in front of the cameras, Smith recently took to Twitter to share some plot details for it. The director confirmed that Brody and Rene will still be an item in the sequel and they’ll have a daughter named Banner. Brodie will also have a surrogate son who manages his Secret Stash comic book shop for him.
With a fresh draft of the script now completed, here’s hoping Twilight of the Mallrats sees the light of day in the not too distant future. Smith does seem to have a habit of announcing sequels that never happen, or at least get stuck in development hell for aeons. But since Jay & Silent Bob Reboot has thrust the View Askewniverse back into the limelight, perhaps the way is paved for the project to move forward smoothly.
