On the latest episode of his Fatman Beyond podcast, filmmaker Kevin Smith teased the progress he’s making on a third Jay and Silent Bob movie — one that fans just found out was even going to exist. According to Smith, the movie is set to go into production in 2024 — likely meaning that it will leapfrog over Mallrats 2 and be Smith’s next project following The 4:30 Movie. Smith, who has a long line of projects waiting to get made, often seems to do this: he will become taken with an idea, and suddenly that’s the one that has to happen right away.
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Smith said that the timing of the movie is surprising — he had a very particular plan about when he was going to do another Jay and Bob movie, which this changes — but also kind of perfect, since next year marks the first appearance of the characters in Smith’s debut feature, Clerks. Since Smith doesn’t own Clerks outright, but does own the underlying characters, including Jay and Bob, he’ll be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jay and Silent Bob throughout 2024.
“I didn’t think I would do it for a long time, but I had an idea and I was like, ‘I’m going to f—in’ follow this and see where it leads,’ and it’s led to something I really f—in’ enjoy,” Smith told co-host Marc Bernardin.
“I’m writing another Jay and Silent Bob movie,” Smith said, to applause from the audience. “I honestly didn’t think I’d do it for…we had a plan to do the third Jay and Silent Bob movie when Jay’s daughter Logan was 18, and she could play Harley’s daughter in the movie. Harley played Jay’s daughter in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, so Logan would play Jay’s granddaughter, and we thought that would be f—ed up. But Mewes was just like, ‘So I’ve got to wait f ten years to do another movie?’ So I was like, ‘I guess you’re right,’ so I started thinking about this thing and started writing it, and I f—ing absolutely love it. I’m writing it in the way that I wrote Red State.…anytime I know where the movie’s going, that means the audience knows where the movie’s going, and since it’s a Jay and Silent Bob movie, and…I dunno, the 18th…probably the audience knows where a lot of it’s going to go. Any time I feel that way, I just turn the tables and write something completely different. Any time I know what the punchline is, I’m forcing myself to find a different punchline to undercut it and stuff. So I’m using it as an exercise to sharpen the comedic knives, if you will.”
You can see the full podcast below.
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back was the first stand-alone movie for the duo. It released in theaters in 2001, and was Smith’s first movie after his critically-acclaimed Dogma, and was, at the time, intended as the final installment in the View Askewniverse, Smith’s shared universe that began with Clerks. After a few years away, Smith re-evaluated that decision, making Clerks II and being more open to the idea of more down the road. The characters’ second live-action movie was 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, but before that, they appeared in 2013’s Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie.
