After over a decade of development, the first Clerks III trailer arrives showing Kevin Smith going full meta for his emotional sequel. The film picks up 15 years after Randal and Dante decided to buy the Quick Stop and neighboring video store to revitalize their lives, but finds Randal having a massive heart attack and barely surviving. Seeing a new lease on life, Randal elects to rope his friends into making a movie about their lives at the convenience store.

Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran return to lead the cast of Clerks III as Randal and Dante alongside Marilyn Ghigliotti as Dante's ex Veronica, Rosario Dawson as Becky, Trevor Fehrman as Elias, Jason Mewes as Jay and Kevin Smith as Silent Bob. Having been developing the sequel since the release of Clerks II, Smith elected to pull inspiration from his own personal health concern with his severe heart attack in 2018 and finally began putting the project together in early 2021 after completing the script and teaming with Lionsgate to shoot the same year. Production finished on Clerks III in August and after initially planning to release the first trailer at San Diego Comic-Con, audiences are getting their first look at the film early.

Related: Every Kevin Smith/View Askewniverse Movie Ranked Worst To Best

With just a few months remaining until the film's arrival, Lionsgate has released the official Clerks III trailer. The video offers a look at Kevin Smith's emotional and fully meta sequel as Randal makes a movie based on his and Dante's life and revealing a number of frequent collaborators returning, including Ben Affleck and Justin Long. Check out the exciting trailer below:

Click here to watch the trailer

The arrival of the first Clerks III trailer comes a little later than Smith first expected, with the writer/director/star having teased that it would arrive in May. Despite the delay, the trailer's premiere is sure to be an exciting look at Smith's emotional and meta sequel, which sees Randal and Dante recreating a number of major scenes from the original Clerks movie, even shooting in black-and-white as Smith did with his directorial debut. Smith even pokes fun at his original Clerks ending in which Dante was shot and killed by a robber, which was widely criticized for its depressive nature, as the Clerks III trailer sees Dante quip that his death never happened.

In addition to the meta recreations of a number of original scenes, the Clerks III trailer features a number of View Askewniverse veterans making appearances in the film, namely Ben Affleck, who recently reunited with Smith for the first time in over a decade for Jay & Silent Bob Reboot. With Affleck having played a variety of characters within the View Askewniverse, it will be interesting to see whether he will be reprising his Chasing Amy or Mallrats roles or if he will be playing an entirely new character. Only time will tell when Clerks III hits theaters on September 13 and 15.

More: Kevin Smith Needs To Finish His True North Trilogy Instead Of More Clerks

Source: Lionsgate