The first trailer for the third Clerks film was just released on July 6th, 2022. Sixteen years after Clerks III is finally on its way.
Set for release later this year, the Q&A master will take Clerks III on a roadshow tour to visit every Kevin Smith fanatic around the country. The movie will see the gang making their very own Clerks-esque film, as Randal has a brush with death and tries his hand at one of his ions, and these 10 callbacks from the trailer will only add to the excitement.
A Familiar Cast
Many of the cast from the 1994 film are back. In the trailer, viewers see main characters Dante and Randal played by Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, respectively. Jason Mewes and Smith himself are back as Jay and Silent Bob - they would never quit hanging around Quick Stop. Rosario Dawson returns as Becky and Trevor Fehrman will reprise his role as Elias, the gang's Mooby's colleague in Clerks II. Newcomer Austin Zajiur (Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark), will also feature as a hilariously named "Blockchain Coltrane."
Although not seen in this trailer, Scott Shiaffo will return as crucial character "Chewlies Gum Rep" from Clerks. Marilyn Ghigliotti will also return - she played Dante's lasagna-gifting girlfriend, Veronica.
Cameo Packed
Not surprisingly, Clerks III looks to be loaded with cameos. Smith movies are known for their cameos - casting Carrie Fisher as a cab driving nun in Jay and Silent Bob, Alanis Morisette as God in Dogma, and Stan Lee as his advice-imparting self in Mallrats. In the trailer is longtime friend and collaborator, Ben Affleck, whom he worked with on films like Jersey Girl and Chasing Amy. He looks to be auditioning for Randal's film, along with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Fred Armisen.
Spotted were also comedians Amy Sedaris, dressed as a witch in the hospital, and Michelle Buteau (Always Be My Maybe). Another collaborator, Justin Long, features as Randal's doctor, who played Brandon the lawyer in the underrated Zach and Miri Make a Porno and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
"I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today!"
The auditionees all repeat a very similar turn of phrase: "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" This iconic line features multiple times in Clerks, as the film opens with Dante being called in on his day off. Throughout the film, as his day gets zanier and zanier, he exclaims this after every inconvenience.
As the auditionees are the ones exclaiming it, this means that Randal's film will bear a close resemblance to the Clerks film that everyone knows. No stranger to the meta, at one point in the trailer, Smith pokes fun at himself by having Randal assert that sequels are for hacks, so this looks to be a ride filled with cheeky winks at the audience.
Original Quick Stop
Clerks II saw Dante and Randal switch from convenience store clerks, presumably fired after the shambles that occurred in the original, to fast-food clerks. Much of the first sequel took place in the fictional Mooby's - a burger t. Dante and Randal buy Quick Stop at the end, and in this film, they are back where they began in Clerks, only that they run the place now.
The actual QuickStop Groceries is located in Leonardo, New Jersey, and is now a part of movie history, with thousands making the pilgrimage to buy a pack of cigarettes or use the cursed employee bathroom. In Kevin Smith lore, it was mentioned by characters in Chasing Amy and has featured again in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks II.
Mooby The Golden Calf
Mooby's sacred mascot is Mooby the Golden Calf and is seen dancing with Jay and Silent Bob and two current Mooby's employees near the end of the trailer. The fictional movie chain restaurant is where Smith introduced fans to Rosario Dawson's Becky and Trevor Fehrman's Elias in Clerks II.
Although not a real chain, Mooby's has had some real-life pop-ups with real-life burgers in the past few years. The next will be at San Diego Comic-Con from 21-24 July.
Black & White
There are glimpses of the film Randal is making as being in black and white. This is because, as Smith confirmed, they are making a meta version of Clerks called Inconvenience - the preliminary title of the first Clerks movie. The original was shot in black and white, not as a pretentious aesthetic choice, but as a necessity.
Working on a shoestring budget, as Smith maxed out several credit cards and used insurance money from a totaled car to fund the project, black and white film was cheaper to buy. Therefore, it is only fitting that Randal's film is aesthetically similar. They are almost certainly on a shoe-string budget too.
Smith's Life-Affirming Heart Attack
In a reference to Kevin Smith's real life (not uncommon in the View Askewniverse), the trailer sees Randal collapsing in Quick Stop and suffering a massive heart attack. This brush with death causes him to take stock and reflect on his life and he resolves to pick up a camera and start shooting his first film.
Smith suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 2018 known as "The Widowmaker." This led him make radical changes in his personal life, including switching to a vegan diet. It also led to further projects as he realized that, on his borrowed time, he'd like to enjoy his greatest ion as much as he can - making movies. The event allowed for him to guilt-trip his famous pals into being involved in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He joked to Sky News that "the heart attack was a casting agent for the movie."
I Assure You, He's Alive!
In a reference to the opening scene of Clerks, Dante hangs up a new sign to assure Quick Stop's loyal customers that Randal has survived his heart attack. Back in 1994, jokers forced gum into the shutter's locks and Dante exasperatedly pants, "I assure you, we're open!" onto a sheet with shoe polish to make sure that customers come in.
This was no throwaway gag, it was a smart way for Smith to utilize his filming location - the very convenience store he used to work for. Smith worked on little sleep to film Clerks after his day shift, late into the night. To fix continuity and make it appear as though Dante is working during the day, this clever fix was written into the script.
Death Star Talk
Smith was known for his movies filled with pop-culture-referencing dialogue in the early '90s before it became somewhat of a standard. The "Death Star rant" is a moment of this in which Randal discusses the fact that thousands of innocent contractors would have been obliterated by our heroes in Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back. He then receives some insight from an actual construction worker who overhears them.
In the trailer, Dante mentions that Randal should include "that stuff you used to say about the death star contractors." However, he replies that he'd be sued by Disney.
DIY Filmmaking
There are plenty of shots of the heroes working behind the camera and it all looks very rough and ready. Smith shot Clerks on a tiny budget after seeing Richard Linklater's Slacker on his 21st birthday, realizing that all a film needed was a great script. He previously explored independent filmmaking of sorts as amateurs Zack and Miri Make a Porno in 2008. Jeff Anderson features as a cameraman, and they shoot in the coffee shop where Zack works.
Smith has become a more confident filmmaker and has a much larger budget at his disposal nowadays and recently commented that Clerks III probably has more VFX shots than Star Wars. Clerks III will be released on September 13, 2022, so fans will be excited to see how both movies turn out - both Clerks 3 itself and the movie within the movie!
