This has been a rather wild year for writer-director Kevin Smith, who suffered a heart attack back in February after performing a stand-up comedy special, nearly dying in the process. Since that time, the creator of the View Askew universe has dropped more than 50 pounds, become a Weight Watchers spokesman, and returned to his writer’s garret with seemingly newfound energy. We’ve been hearing for months that one of the things on his docket was a possible Jay and Silent Bob reboot film, but Smith just made it official via Twitter—the movie is coming, reuniting the classic pair of Jason Mewes (Jay) and Smith (Silent Bob).
Spent the first day of 2019 having a #JayAndSilentBobReboot pre-pre-production meeting at our holiday-roomy @WeWork office! @JayMewes took this pic of me and @JordanMonsanto to both mark the moment and to document that we were the only dopes in Hollywood working on the holiday. pic.twitter.com/xTNrpN6OF6
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) January 2, 2019
The duo of Jay and Silent Bob have appeared in many of the films set in Smith’s iconic View Askew universe, first being bit players in his 1994 directorial debut Clerks (budget: $27,000) before branching off into their own feature, 2001’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. They were also major parts of everything from Mallrats to Dogma to Clerks 2—which is also the last time the pair appeared, now 13 years ago. So enough time has certainly elapsed for a reboot to make sense, at the very least.
One can also understand why Smith might want to go back to some familiar ground right about now. His last few films haven’t exactly had the strongest receptions, from the polarizing weirdness of walrus horror movie Tusk to the relative shrug elicited by Yoga Hosers, in which Smith cast his own daughter Harley Quinn Smith as one of the leads. This feels like it could be Smith’s palate cleanser, or a return to more populist filmmaking, after a few projects that indulged goofier flights of fancy.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Jay and Silent Bob reboot.