Last Tuesday, Vanity Fair released the first image from Kevin Smith’s upcoming third entry in the Clerks series. Clerks 3 will reunite key characters from the previous two films, including Brian O’ Halloran as Dante, Jeff Anderson as Randal,  Marilyn Ghigliotti as Veronica, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith as Jay and Silent Bob respectively. As well as Trevor Ferman as Elias, and Rosario Dawson as Becky, both of whom made their debut in Clerks 2. 

The image is a recreation of the famous press photo from Clerks 2. 

Clerks 3 comes almost 30 years after Smith came onto the scene with the original film. According to Smith, the newest entry into the “View Askewniverse” will be semi autobiographical. Having Randal suffer a heart attack similar to Smith’s in 2018. In an interview with The Wrap, Smith had this to say about the plot of the film: 

“Randal has a heart attack, decides that he came so close to death, and his life has meant nothing, there’s nobody to memorialize him, he has no family or anything like that, and in the recovery, while under fentanyl, he comes to the conclusion at mid-life, having almost died, having worked in a movie store his whole life and watched other people’s movies, he tells Dante, I think we need to make a movie. So Dante and Randal make ‘Clerks.’ That’s the story of ‘Clerks 3.’”

Smith also stated, “I’m going to bring my boys right back to where they brought me. I’m writing it, it writes itself because I f—ing lived it 25 years ago,”

The original Clerks struck a chord with an entire generation of film fans, and non film fans alike. Smith’s fast paced writing on topics of pop culture and the life of a minimum wage convenience store employee was a key element to the independent film movement of the 1990’s. 

Clerks was essentially a story about Smith in his twenties, while Clerks 2 was more of a film about his thirties. As it’s looking right now, Clerks 3 is going to be more of a summation of Smith’s life and career, with Dante and Randall being his surrogates. 

Clerks 3 is currently filming in Leonardo, NJ. No release date is known as of yet.