Kevin Smith Is Writing Coronavirus Pandemic Into Mallrats Sequel

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic continues to have major impact on the entertainment industry and it's something that is likely going continue to have an impact well into the future -- impact far beyond the economic implications. As a major historic and cultural event, the coronavirus pandemic is likely to have an impact on the stories going forward and that includes filmmaker Kevin Smith's sequel Mallrats. Smith revealed during a recent broadcast of Fatman Beyond that he's working the pandemic into the script for Twilight of the Mallrats.

In addressing the pandemic, Smith said that it was reading he was doing about the economic impact of the pandemic on retail -- especially malls -- that made him realize it was something that needed to be included in the script because the Mallrats story centers in a mall.

"It's so weird. I was writing today and I was working on Twilight of the Mallrats, the Mallrats 2 script and so I had just read last night articles about the retail apocalypse where 2020 was going to be the death knell for a bunch of stores anyway but the pandemic has escalated that, made it worse, and we're about to see a lot of big box stores, big name stores that you and I have known for most of our lives just go away forever," Smith said. "That means massive vacancies in malls so they're predicting the entire implosion of malls. They were already teetering, but an entire implosion of malls across America. So, as a guy who's writing a movie set in a mall I'm like 'well, that's useful information!' for my line of work so I had to start writing the pandemic into the movie because clearly this is going to be remembered for all time. It's not like 'oh, why would you make, that's so topical, the coronavirus happened last year.' You'll still be hearing corona-related stories and plotlines and drops for the next five to ten years the same way post-September 11th that was everywhere."

Smith has been working on the sequel to Mallrats for some time. In January, Smith updated fans that he was hard at work writing the script for Twilight of the Mallrats.

"Been happily lost in the 90s, writing Twilight of the Mallrats for most of the last 72 hours," Smith wrote on Twitter at the time. "Jumped online a minute ago to see what the real world's been up to and...well, now I'm headed *back* to my safe made-up Mall to write pop culture bon mots for Brodie Bruce instead."

I addition to the update about the sequel to Mallrats and how the pandemic will impact it, Smith also gave an update on Masters of the Universe: Revelation, revealing that work continues on the series despite the current Hollywood shutdown.

"I have been working on Masters of the Universe, but that's circling back over on stuff that's been done," Smith said. "I saw two animatics for episodes one and two and they're f-cking outstanding, but I was like 'Oh my God, I can write in some more dialogue.' So I wrote another page down that I could throw in while fights are going on and stuff, but that's just circling over stuff that's been done. But you can feel productive. It's breaking new ground where I'm like 'Take it forward,' and that's what I'm gonna spend the next week doing, just taking my head out of the news and putting my head into my fake f-cking mall."