by Kevin Smith provides an Big Update About Mallrats 2, confirming that the long-awaited sequel is at last finding some momentum with studios.
Mallrats 2 has recently received an extremely interesting update from Kevin Smith after years of starts and pauses. The 1995 comedy, which served as the second chapter in Smith’s expansive View Askewniverse, focused on Brodie and T.S., two comic book lovers and stalwarts who went to the mall to indulge in the mayhem there in order to get over being dumped by their girlfriends. In spite of its box office failure, Mallrats has become a cult classic, as is the case with many of Smith’s movies. Smith has also revisited several characters in later instalments of the View Askewniverse and even looked into the idea of a direct sequel, which may now be more likely than ever to happen.
Kevin Smith gave some insight into what he has planned for 2023 in the most recent edition of his podcast Fat Man Beyond. Smith mentioned a number of projects that he is excited to write, but he also provided an intriguing update on Mallrats 2, saying that the long-awaited sequel is now gathering momentum with studios and may start shooting in 2023. At 2 hours and 2 minutes into the podcast, Smith makes the following statement and provides an explanation:
“I got a bunch of things. For the first few months of the year, I’m going to be writing. I’ve got a bunch of writing projects for other people, so I’m unfortunately not at liberty to reveal, but some of them are f–king wonderful.That’s a different beast than the stuff I do for myself. What am I most looking forward to? We’re seeing some traction on Mallrats 2: Twilight of the Mallrats, so…fingers crossed, folks. We heard from the Lionsgate folks, and they were very happy with the performance of Clerks III. I’m not allowed to say anything else. [Producer Jordan Monsanto] is like, ‘I can’t tell you anything because then you go talk about it on your f–king show…but things are looking good, so this could be the year that we return to the mall.”
Mallrats 2: Why Took So Long To Produce ?
Smith has been investigating the prospect of a Mallrats 2 for almost ten years, outlining ideas as early as early 2015 with the initial expectation that filming would take place the following year.Since then, Smith has provided a number of updates on the sequel, including the initial proposal to turn Mallrats 2 into a 10-episode miniseries rather than a feature, which was abandoned when six networks failed to pick up the project. The most encouraging development for the movie came in the early months of 2020, when Smith revealed he had resumed writing Mallrats 2, now titled Twilight of the Mallrats, and that he intended to reunite the original cast as well as Aparna Brielle from the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot to play the daughter of Jason Lee and Shannen Doherty’s characters from the first movie.
Despite his desire to see Mallrats 2 through, the largest challenge for Smith appears to be raising the necessary funds for the project given that Universal partly owns the rights to the first movie. The original Mallrats cost $6.1 million to make, but it was widely regarded as a major failure when it came out because it only made $2.1 million and received generally poor reviews from critics who thought the humour was too childish and the style too much like a studio movie rather than Smith’s DIY approach seen in his previous film.Although the movie has subsequently gained a significant cult following, Universal would probably be reluctant to fully fund a sequel given Smith’s erratic box office performance.
However, Smith’s recent excitement over the possibilities of Mallrats 2 and four other movies that are due out soon may indicate that the sequel may finally get off the ground. The director recently suggested that his association with Lionsgate and the studio’s connections to Universal might result in the production of Mallrats 2. Given the steady box office success of his most recent two movies, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot and Clerks III, both studios may attempt to ride his wave of resurgence to resurrect one of his most beloved stories. Audiences may watch the original Mallrats again on Freevee as they wait for information on the conceivable sequel.
