‘Clerks III’ Trailer: The Quick Stop Goes Meta In Kevin Smith’s Threequel

Kevin Smith‘s entire career is a kind of navelgazing, either about pop culture, his own life or his own art. So, it’s not really much of a surprise his third film in the “Clerks” franchise, simply titled “Clerks III,” is a meta affair that looks back on Smith’s own career. “The film is predicated on the idea that Randal survives a heart attack, a massive heart attack, quite like I did, and then winds up, you know, deciding that he’s wasted his life,” Smith told Vanity Fair last year while describing the plot. “But before he dies, he wants to memorialize himself. He wants to make a movie. So our boys essentially wind up making ‘Clerks [1]’.”

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“Clerks III” is the ninth film set in the View Askewniverse and the sequel to Smith’s cult classic 1994 and 2006 films. If the first “Clerks” film wasn’t meta enough for you, having been biographical to Smith’s experiences and being shot at his day job convenience store after hours, this film is definitely going to be. It follows Randal (Jeff Anderson), following the massive aforementioned heart attack, who sets out to make a movie immortalizing his life at the convenience store that started it all, with the help of fellow clerks Dante (Brian O’Halloran), Elias (Trevor Fehrman), Jay (Jason Mewes), and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith). 

To celebrate the release of the trailer this morning, Smith hosted and moderated an Instagram Live to discuss the upcoming release alongside castmates O’Halloran, Anderson, and Mewes. If you missed it, you can find film information on the “Clerks III” website here. 

Smith posted on social media in 2017 that the third installment of the “Clerks” franchise wasn’t going to happen due to one of the leads dropping out, but in his words, “You CAN do anything you want in life, so long as you’re patient and malleable.” So here we are, a year and a half after he announced he had finished the script, celebrating the trailer’s release. 

Lionsgate in partnership with Fathom Events will be releasing “Clerks III” exclusively in theaters on September 13 and 15. You can watch the new trailer below and get tickets here.