Kevin Smith has finally gone back to the Quick Stop to bring the Clerks saga full circle. Clerks III will take audiences back to New Jersey for more mundane customer service and profound philosophical meditations. Smith recently dropped the trailer for the highly anticipated threequel, which promises yet another wildly satisfying installment in the View Askewniverse.
The movie will premiere in Red Bank, New Jersey, on September 4, ahead of its wide release on September 13. From Dante to Randal to Jay and Silent Bob, Clerks III is bringing back a bunch of fan-favorite icons.
Dante Hicks
If there’s a Clerks movie getting made, then Dante Hicks is supposed to be there. According to the Daily Mail, Brian O’Halloran was spotted filming scenes for Clerks III at the Quick Stop. Since he and Randal bought the Quick Stop and the adjoining RST video store at the end of Clerks II, Dante won’t be forced by his boss to work on his day off in this one, because he is the boss now.
It wouldn’t really feel like a Clerks movie unless O’Halloran reprised his role as the exasperated everyman who started it all. The threequel will provide Dante with a bunch more things to complain about.
Randal Graves
Just as it wouldn’t feel like a Clerks movie without Dante, Clerks III wouldn’t feel like a Clerks movie without Randal, either. Their bromance has been the heart of the franchise since the beginning. As reported by ComicBook.com, Jeff Anderson rejected a previous version of Smith’s Clerks III script that was much darker in tone. Smith admitted that this version of the threequel was “not what Dante and Randal deserve.”
According to Variety, Smith has finally written a version of Clerks III that Anderson is willing to star in. In Clerks III, like Smith himself did a couple of years ago, Randal suffers a heart attack. He takes stock of his life and decides to make a movie about his time at the Quick Stop, so the threequel is poised to get pretty meta.
Jay
According to Den of Geek, Jay is still hanging out outside the Quick Stop after nearly three decades. Jason Mewes will reprise his role as the loudmouth pot dealer who conducts business on the wall of Dante and Randal’s store (against their wishes) in Clerks III.
In Clerks III, Jay could repeat his “15 bucks, little man” rap, do another Buffalo Bill-style dance to “Goodbye Horses,” or surprise audiences with a new musical number.
Silent Bob
Where there’s Jay, there is usually Silent Bob. According to Den of Geek, Kevin Smith himself will be reprising his own View Askewniverse role as Bob alongside Mewes’ return as Jay. The last time audiences saw this duo together was in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, which left them both in a happy place.
Bob’s defining characteristic is that he hardly ever opens his mouth, but when he does have something to say, it’s beautiful and profound. At the end of the first Clerks film, he tells Dante, “You know, there’s a million fine-looking women in the world, dude. But they don’t all bring you lasagna at work. Most of ‘em just cheat on you.” In Clerks III, fans can look forward to some more timely wisdom from Jay’s softly spoken “hetero life mate.”
Becky Scott
Rosario Dawson joined the View Askewniverse in Clerks II as Becky Scott, Dante and Randal’s boss at Mooby’s. By the end of that movie, Dante realized he was in love with Becky (and also learned that she was pregnant with his child).
According to Variety, despite her increasingly hectic schedule including live-action appearances as Ahsoka Tano, Dawson will reprise the role in Clerks III.
Elias Grover
According to Variety, another character introduced in Clerks II – Elias Grover, Dante and Randal’s dorky co-worker at Mooby’s – will return in Clerks III. Played by Trevor Fehrman, Elias is a huge fan of Transformers and The Lord of the Rings.
At the end of Clerks II, Dante and Randal hired Elias to run the RST video store. In Clerks III, he could struggle to keep the business afloat in the streaming age.
Lando
Smith’s Fatman Beyond co-host, Marc Bernardin, is set to make a cameo appearance in Clerks III. While his character has never appeared in a previous Clerks film, he will be familiar to diehard Clerks fans who have followed the extended universe.
According to ComicBook.com, Bernardin will play Quick Stop regular Lando, who was originally featured in the short-lived cartoon spin-off Clerks: The Animated Series as a satire of tokenism.
Veronica Loughran
According to MovieWeb, Marilyn Ghigliotti will reprise her role as Dante’s ex-girlfriend Veronica Loughran in Clerks III. Veronica hasn’t been seen since she broke up with Dante at the end of the original Clerks movie, so this is a momentous occasion for fans of the View Askewniverse.
Dante found true love with Becky in Clerks II, so it’s unlikely that Clerks III will feature a romantic reunion with Veronica. It’s possible that she’s playing herself in Randal’s movie-within-a-movie, or she’ll just make a brief cameo appearance when he finishes the movie and premieres it at the store.