Kevin Smith confirms Dante and Randal will be back for Clerks 3
"I assure you, we're open," says the director, citing the famous line from the first film.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Director Kevin Smith (center) with original Clerks stars Jeff Anderson (right) and Jay Mewes.
It's time to go back to Quick Stop. Director Kevin Smith announced on Facebook Tuesday that he's making a third film in the Clerks movie series, and that original stars Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran will return as Randal and Dante.
"It'll be a movie that concludes a saga," Smith wrote. "It'll be a movie about how you're never too old to completely change your life. It'll be a movie about how a decades-spanning friendship finally confronts the future. It'll be a movie that brings us back to the beginning -- a return to the cradle of civilization in the great state of New Jersey."
In the original Clerks, which came out in 1994, O'Halloran starred as Dante Hicks, a hapless convenience store employee. Anderson played his pal Randal, who worked at the neighboring video store, although "work" isn't really the word to fairly describe the loafing Randal pulls off. A sequel, Clerks II, came out in 2006.
Clerks III won't use the old script Smith has been kicking around.
"This is a completely new screenplay that I just started writing last night!" he wrote. "And so far, it's like a dream come true!"
3 CLERKS! Thanks to the good folks at @leeloomultiprops, I got to see Randal! #JeffAnderson, @jaymewes, and I spent...
Posted by Kevin Smith on Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Smith noted that he had "mended fences" with Ben Affleck, who has appeared in numerous Smith films, but recently became estranged from the director. Smith Facebook post said he was "hoping for the chance" to also reconcile with Anderson in a similar way. It looks like he succeeded, because Smith went on to thank the actor for agreeing to make the film.
There's no scheduled release date for the third Clerks yet.
