Kevin Smith Confirms Return Of Jay And Silent Bob
The mack daddies of Jersey are coming back to the big screen.
Kevin Smith took to Twitter on the first day of the new year to announce that Jay and Silent Bob, the loudmouth/usually mute stoner combo he introduced in his debut 1994 feature Clerks, will be making a triumphant return. As per usual, Smith himself will be filling the "usually mute" half of the equation; longtime accomplice Jason Mewes' involvement was strongly implied by his presence (along with his wife Jordan Monsanto) at the "pre-pre-production meeting."
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
Mewes was breathlessly excited about the potential project (which may or may not actually be titled Jay and Silent Bob Get a Reboot) during a LaughSpin interview this past November, but at that point, nothing had been officially confirmed. "Hopefully, all is going as planned. We have the money. We have [the] location. We have the offers out to people," the actor said. "Kevin and I went to the doctor [because] you have to get insured and bonded and stuff. We're in motion to start pre-production [in] January... So as long as everything stays on track, yes, Jay and Silent Bob reboot will be made, and I'm very excited because I definitely would love to do one more Jay and Bob movie before, you know, we get... too old to hang out with apes and swing from grappling hooks and all that good stuff. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. The script's super funny."
Mewes looks to have been right on the money with the time frame, as he, Smith, and Monsanto apparently hit the ground running on the very first day of the year. The news couldn't come at a better time for fans of big-screen comedies, as the last several years have been absolutely brutal for the genre. Efforts such as 2017's Baywatch and Rough Night crashed and burned at the box office, and if anything, 2018 proved that the trend was real — with offerings such as I Feel Pretty, Life of the Party, and Action Point flopping hard enough to register on the Richter scale.
Jay and Silent Bob's exceedingly vulgar comedy stylings may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it can't be denied that the perpetually baked duo have played a significant part in the success of Smith's "View Askew-niverse" films. After their debut in Clerks, the characters went on to become the common thread in the loosely-related flicks Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma before getting their very own starring vehicle, 2001's brilliantly insane Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. They last appeared onscreen in the 2006 effort Clerks II, and in animated form in 2013's Jay and Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie (which was only screened in select cities on certain dates, as part of a "roadshow" tour).
In the intervening years, Mewes has kept himself busy with smaller film and television projects while Smith has branched out into horror with features such as Red State, Tusk, and Yoga Hosers. But, lo and behold, it appears that the stars have finally aligned for a return trip to the Askew-niverse, with Jay and Silent Bob once again front and center — even if they are a little older and (unlikely though it may seem) wiser.
"It's a more mature Jay, I think," Mewes explained to LaughSpin. "Kevin wrote it to be. There's still the goofy, slapsticky Jay, but just a little more mature. The both of them are... I don't know how much I can give away, but I'll leave it at that. Definitely a more mature Jay and Silent Bob."
We'll believe that when we see it, but as long as the duo haven't lost their affinity for the green stuff, wacky hijinks, and the Greatest Band in the World, we're on board. We'll have more details on the reboot as they become available.