Director Kevin Smith has been working hard to get Clerks III off the ground for quite some time and he’s been very open about the challenges that he’s faced bringing this film to the big screen. Smith revealed nearly three years ago that he had completed the feature script and even teased a picture of the Clerks III title page on Instagram.

The original Clerks came out over twenty years ago and it’s the first film to introduce us to Smith’s unique perspective on the world. Not only did he build a respectable career around his beloved characters, but he also created a loyal fanbase. Smith has taken a departure from his signature style of filmmaking in recent years and found success directing low-budget horror films like Red State and Tusk. He recently premiered his indie hybrid comedy Yoga Hosers at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

Clerks III was intended to begin shooting last year, but The Weinstein Company, who owns the rights to the franchise were not willing to provide the proper budget for the film. It was later announced that a sequel for Mallrats (another popular Smith film from the 1990s) was going into production ahead of Clerks III. The decision to move forward with that sequel (Mallbrats) was due to a scheduling conflict with the filming location.

The good news is that there will be two more Kevin Smith films in the near future, although both Mallbrats and Clerks III are still in pre-production. It might be a while before we see either film in theaters, but we can take comfort in the fact that we’ll get to see all our favorite characters again soon.