The beginning of the month saw the highly-anticipated debut of the Clerks III trailer. Many staples from Clerks and Clerks II appeared in the trailer, including Brian O’Halloran (Dante Hicks), Jeff Anderson (Randal Graves), Rosario Dawson (Becky), Trevor Fehrman (Elias), Jason Mewes (Jay), and director Kevin Smith who also plays Silent Bob. The trailer featured some exciting cameos appearances including a glimpse at longtime Smith collaborator, Ben Affleck. The two creatives worked together on Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and more until they had a falling out. After not speaking for ten years, they reunited when Affleck made a cameo in Jay & Silent Bob Reboot in 2019. Smith took to Instagram yesterday to reveal Affleck will not be playing any of the characters he portrayed in Smith’s previous movies in Clerks III.
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“BEN’S BACK! If folks were stoked to see #BenAffleck in the trailer for the new @clerksmovie, just imagine how happy *I* was to have #Batman himself in the flick! I know he’s a super star celebrity known worldwide for acting, directing, and being Ben Affleck – but among his many accomplishments, Ben is also one of my co-architects of the #ViewAskewniverse. He’s been boots on the ground in my fake New Jersey since #Mallrats in 1995. And #ChasingAmy was written specifically for him, based on his personality – so bits of Ben are baked into the creative DNA any time I return to #Viewaskew to play with my life-sized action figures. For those #Askewniverse addicts who’ve asked, Ben’s not playing #BluntmanAndChronic co-creator Holden McNeil, or Fashionable Male Shannon Hamilton, or renegade angel Bartleby from #Dogma, or Ben Affleck, or any of the callback characters he’s ever portrayed in one of my flicks. Ben’s playing someone new this time around (with a sentimental sobriquet stolen from our old message board at ViewAskew dot com).”
Smith continued, “But when he rolled up on set to shoot the auditions montage (briefly glimpsed in the trailer), he was just good ol’ Ben – the funny-ass friend who’s been in over half of the 15 movies I’ve been lucky enough to direct since 1993. See him and many more surprise cameos when #Clerks3 is in theaters September 13th & 15th on @fathomevents screens – or see the flick *with* me when I hit the road on Sept 4th with #TheConvenienceTour! You can get tickets for both at the link in my bio!” Smith wrote. Mewes commented on the post, quoting a famous line from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. “Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms yo but he was even better in the new @clerksmovie,” he wrote. You can check out Smith’s post below:
Back in 2020, ComicBook.com spoke with Smith and he revealed that Affleck wants more than a cameo in Smith’s Twilight of the Mallrats. It’s unclear if/when Smith plans to release the Mallrats sequel, but we’d definitely love to see Affleck in a bigger Smith role again.
“[Ben Affleck] cameo-ed in Reboot, far more than a cameo, but we were texting, and I was just like … He had mentioned Mallrats because he mentioned his oldest daughter makes fun of him for Mallrats because of how he’s dressed in the movie… She’s like, ‘Where’d you get those clothes?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know.’ So I was like, ‘Well, you’ll be able to tell her that you’re in the next Mallrats if you want to come out and cameo.’ And he was like, ‘She likes it too much. Better be more than one scene cameo, dude. Put me in a lot.’ I said, ‘All right, done and done.’”
Clerks III is coming to select theatres on September 13th and 15th. You can get tickets for The Convience Tour here.
