Kevin Smith has made a lot of movies over the years but his popularity has never been higher than his early days when he built what came to be known as the View Askewnaverse. His characters, which circled around a central point of the recurrent characters of Jay and Silent Bob, built a strong following, but following Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in 2001, the book was quite literally closed on that world. One sequel did follow that, however, in recent years Smith has brought those characters back again, and he's set to do so again in a sequel to Mallrats.
Kevin Smith took to Instagram to reveal that he has used his quarantine period to get some work done, including completing the script that is currently known as Twilight of the Mallrats. The movie will, according to the post, see the return of all the major characters 25 years later. We're in a time when malls aren't exactly the most popular thing in the world, which, as it turns out, is largely what the movie will be about.
Even Kevin Smith calls Twilight of the Mallrats an unnecessary sequel, but when did necessity ever dictate the creation of a sequel? Jason Lee's Brodie Bruce will return in the lead but basically everybody who appeared in the original Mallrats will be back, including, it seems, the characters played by Shannen Doherty, who was the biggest name in the cast at the time the original movie was made, and Michael Rooker, who may be the biggest name in the cast currently.
The only character name not mentioned is Shannon, who was played by Ben Affleck in the original Mallrats. It wouldn't be that big a shock if Affleck doesn't appear, but then again, we weren't expecting him to show up in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, and that happened, so who knows?
Mallrats was Kevin Smith's second film following the hit indie film Clerks. It was actually a major studio production, though the movie bombed pretty hard on its initial release. However, fans of Smith's work embraced it along with all the other movies he was making at the time. The movie is still pretty funny.
Most recently, Mallrats made a brief jump back to the public consciousness when it was the subject of Stan Lee's Captain Marvel cameo. Lee is seen on a train practicing his lines for the movie.
Twilight of the Mallrats follows the release of Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. That movie was again loved by fans, and pretty well embraced by critics as well, likely giving Kevin Smith the desire to follow up on Mallrats as well. Clerks 2 came out in 2006, but a Clerks 3 is reportedly also in development.
With all film productions on hold, there's no telling when this movie will actually begin filming, but it should give Kevin Smith fans something to look forward to.
