Director Kevin Smith revealed that Clerks III is finished, and hinted at when the third film in the trilogy will be released.
“This fall, I believe,” the director said during a recent panel at WonderCon. “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 fucking 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.”
Actor Jason Mewes had previously stated that Clerks III was likely to be released in July, but Smith now seems insistent that the movie will not be out until the fall. The highly anticipated View Askew release wrapped its filming in late August of 2021, after about one month of shooting.
The film, which will conclude the Clerks trilogy, follows 1994’s Clerks and 2006’s Clerks II. While both of those films centered on the character of Dante Hicks as protagonist, Smith said the third film focuses on Randal Graves, the sidekick of the first two stories. “The film is predicated on the idea that Randal survives a heart attack, a massive heart attack, quite like I did, and then winds up, you know, deciding that he’s wasted his life,” Smith explained. Graves will survive his heart attack and decide to make a film about his life at the Quick Stop convenience store, much like Kevin Smith did in real life with the first Clerks movie.
Smith revealed last year that Clerks II was less autobiographical than Clerks, and that Clerks III would be a return to form in that it has more basis in Smith’s real life than the second installment. “I love it so much, but the problem with Clerks II is it’s pure artifice to a large degree,” Smith explained. “Clerks was based solely on reality. I woke up, I went to that store; crazy people came in; kids hung out outside and sold drugs; I had a friend who worked next door. All of it was very autobiographical…Clerks II is completely fabricated, right down to the fact that I never even worked in fast food.”
Clerks III loafs into theaters in late 2022.
Source: WonderCon, “The Panel with Kevin Smith!”
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