Kevin Smith is returning once more to his Askewniverse with Clerks 3, but by doing so, he is putting off creating the conclusion to his True North Trilogy. Smith began his career with the famously low-budget Clerks in 1994 and built a cinematic Askewniverse out of it before cinematic universes were commonplace in contemporary media. His unique brand of raunchy humor and relatable characters garnered a roller coaster of praise and criticisms throughout the 90s and 2000s, but his Askewniverse remains a one-of-a-kind collection of films. Yet Smith's early films, while diverse, never strayed far from the comedy genre, so the release of his horror thriller Red State in 2011 arrived as something as a shock.

Paving a new way in the horror genre, Smith teamed up with A24 for his feature Tusk, a disturbingly dark comedy horror film about the eccentric Howard Howe (Michael Parks) who takes podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) prisoner with the intent of transforming him into a human-walrus hybrid. While the Canadian-set Tusk did not set the world on fire financially, it gained enough of a cult following to inspire Smith to make a loose sequel, Yoga Hosers, which pitted two teenage clerks (Lily-Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith) against the forces of evil. In this way, Smith kept Yoga Hosers light by mixing in Clerks-style humor while still expanding on the grotesque imagery that earned his movie Tusk such critical acclaim.

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Yet instead of finishing his proposed True North Trilogy with the movie Moose Jaws - simply described as "like Jaws (1975), but with a moose" - Smith is instead heading back to the Askewniverse via Clerks 3Clerks 2 was a tidy conclusion to the Askewniverse, but Smith appears unable to resist returning to the universe that made his name with Jay and Silent Bob Reboot in 2019 and his upcoming Clerks 3. While revising familiar characters is not unwelcome from such a beloved director, it was exciting to see Smith successfully branch out and try different genres in the 2010s - meaning Smith needs to make finishing his True North Trilogy a higher priority.

Despite mixed reception, Tusk and Yoga Hosers were filled with creativity and saw Smith at his most visually inventive while delivering the off-kilter humor that his early work is known for. And while Moose Jaws' premise is inherently comedic, Smith has also proven with his horror movie Red State that he can make a disturbing movie while tempering his comedic inflections. Moose Jaws could also challenge Smith to make a large-scale creature feature on an indie budget, using what he learned from the B-movie special effects in Tusk and Yoga Hosers and applying them to a more out and out horror movie.

As a result, the return to the Askewniverse with Clerks 3 is a fun prospect but is too predictable for Smith, who has shown that he can be a wildly original proposition in other genres besides comedy. Tusk began as a joke on his Smodcact podcast and snowballed into a proposed Canadian-set trilogy of horror films that admirers of Smith's zanier side would love to see finished. After the potential of Smith's interconnected Askewniverse films has been exhausted, the finale of his True North Trilogy will be waiting for him with open arms.

Next: Clerks 3: Casting Kevin Smith’s Meta Clerks Movie