When the Bluntan and Chronic movie gets its grim-and-gritty reboot in Kevin Smith’s upcoming film Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, the role of Chronic will be played by Melissa Benoist. The actress, best known as the title lead on Supergirl, has been friendly with Smith for years as he has become a favorite director on Supergirl and The Flash, and so she will join his next movie as one half of the stoner superhero duo played by Jason Biggs and James Van Der Beek in 2001’s Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Even that, though, is technically not true: Biggs and Van Der Beek played heightened versions of themselves in that film.
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Within the story of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Bob (Kevin Smith) learned that Bluntman & Chronic, a comic that drew inspiration from them and had been created by Chasing Amy‘s Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee), had been optioned as a movie — and that toxic fans on the internet had started maligning Jay and Bob (portrayed in the comics as the heroes’ alter-egos) as boring characters not worthy of an adaptation. Incensed, they set out for Hollywood to prevent the movie getting made at all. In Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, they…well, it’s basically the same gag. Except now its’ about the movie getting rebooted. See how that works?
According to Smith’s Instagram post, which you can see above, Benoist was the first person he asked to be in Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, other than Mewes and his own daughter, Harley Quinn Smith. He also suggested that there will be a cameo from Chris Wood, Benoist’s real-life boyfriend and Supergirl co-star.
When Smith released a first look at a movie poster for Bluntman & Chronic‘s reboot earlier this week, he teased that the casting was perfect and that he was excited for the audience reaction when he debuts the trailer for the movie at his Hall H panel later this weekend at Comic Con. So far, he says, a lot of fans had guessed Benoist’s role, so he decided to let the cat out of the bag…but the actor playing Bluntman remains (at least so far) shrouded in mystery. Some fans have speculated that longtime Smith collaborator Ben Affleck, who hasn’t been in one of the filmmaker’s projects since a cameo in 2006’s Clerks II, could be playing the role, which is an obvious parody of his own turn as Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Stick with ComicBook.com throughout the weekend for more news about Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, Supergirl, and more from Comic Con International in San Diego.
