Kevin Smith wears the original Silent Bob stoner hoodie in a new Clerks 3 behind-the-scenes image. Smith became a darling of indie film when he released the low-budget comedy Clerks back in 1994. In addition to writing and directing the movie, Smith also starred as his signature character Silent Bob, an unspeaking stoner who spends all his time in the company of motor-mouthed fellow pothead Jay (Jason Mewes).
The comedy team of Jay and Silent Bob would of course be carted out again by Smith and Mewes for Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma before getting their own movie with 2001’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, a parody of the Hollywood studio system. The duo naturally had to return when Smith revisited his breakthrough indie comedy with the 2006 sequel Clerks II. And they struck back again in 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. Now Smith is ready to make the long-promised Clerks III, which sees him again playing Silent Bob.
In honor of Clerks III officially being picked up by Lionsgate and getting set to go into production, Smith recently posted an image of himself visiting the original Quick Stop from the first movie. In another new behind-the-scenes posting, Smith just shared pictures of himself wearing the actual original Silent Bob hoodie from the first Clerks. As Smith explains in the caption, the hoodie that started it all has spent the last 20 years framed and hanging on the wall of his New Jersey comic book shop Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, but was removed from its place of honor and will be returned to duty in Clerks III. See the images in the space below:
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Smith of course looks a lot different in the new image than he did back in 1994 when the original Clerks came out. A lot of this is obviously due to the weight loss he experienced after his near-fatal 2018 heart attack. And of course there’s just the natural passage of time to consider. Interestingly, although it’s been nearly three decades since Clerks came out, it appears Silent Bob hasn’t changed up his wardrobe much as he’ll still be wearing the same hoodie he sported in 1994. In fact there’s something appropriate about this as Jay and Silent Bob do seem like characters who exist out of time, as if they became stuck forever in the early ‘90s while the rest of the world moved on without them.
Jay and Silent Bob won’t in fact be the only characters returning from the first two Clerks movies. Jeff Anderson’s Randal and Brian O’Halloran’s Dante will also be back, along with Rosario Dawson’s Becky, who appeared in Clerks II. And given that Clerks III is a Smith movie, there are bound to be some fun cameos from people who’ve worked with the director over the years. The story reportedly concerns Randal having his own heart attack and asking Dante, Silent Bob and Jay to make a movie immortalizing his time at the Quick Stop. Clearly there’s an autobiographical touch to this plot, given Smith’s own health issues, as well a very Jay and Silent Bob-sounding meta-narrative element. Clerks 3 does not yet have a release date.
