View Askewniverse


The View Askewniverse is a fictional universe created by writer/director Kevin Smith, featured in several films, comics and a television series; it is named for Smith's production company, View Askew Productions. The characters Jay and Silent Bob appear in almost all the View Askewniverse media, and characters from one story often reappear or are referred to in others. Smith often casts the same actors for multiple characters in the universe, sometimes even in the same film; Smith himself portrays the character of Silent Bob.

Setting

Smith's recurring characters, settings, and motifs first appeared in his debut film, Clerks. Since then, the main canon has consisted of eight feature films, in addition to several short films, comic books, and a short-lived animated TV series. The View Askewniverse is centered on the towns of Leonardo, Highlands, and Red Bank, all located in Monmouth County, central New Jersey. Chasing Amy also takes place partly in New York City, while Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot involve road trips.

Films

''Clerks'' (1994)

Clerks is the first film in the series of the View Askewniverse. It follows a day in the lives of two store clerks, Dante Hicks and Randal Graves. Dante is called into work at the Quick Stop convenience store on his day off until the boss can relieve him at noon. As Dante serves a succession of customers, he repeatedly complains that he is "not even supposed to be here today". Randal works at RST Video next door, although he spends almost the entire day relaxing at the Quick Stop. Dante learns he will be working all day, and decides to close the store for brief periods to play hockey on the roof and to attend a memorial service for his ex-girlfriend. An old flame now engaged surprises him with a visit. The two had been talking on the phone for months and after seeing each other again they are keen to reunite and leave their current relationships.

''Mallrats'' (1995)

Takes place one day before the events in Clerks. The film is about two young men, Brodie Bruce and T.S. Quint, who hang out at a mall after being dumped by their girlfriends, while also trying to avoid the wrath of Shannon Hamilton.

''Chasing Amy'' (1997)

A heterosexual man, Holden McNeil, falls in love with a lesbian woman, Alyssa Jones, causing conflict with his homophobic best friend, Banky Edwards, with whom he has created a comic book called Bluntman and Chronic based upon their friends Jay and Silent Bob.

''Dogma'' (1999)

The world ends if two angels enter a church in New Jersey and it is up to Jesus' last scion, Jay and Silent Bob, and the thirteenth Apostle to stop them.

''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'' (2001)

Jay and Silent Bob embark on a road-trip to Hollywood to try to stop a Bluntman and Chronic movie from being made. Within the film, the Bluntman and Chronic movie was to be based on the comic made by the protagonists of Chasing Amy.

''Clerks II'' (2006)

Roughly ten years after Clerks, Dante and Randal are now employed in the fast food industry.

''Jay & Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie!'' (2013)

The animated film depicts the events within the Bluntman and Chronic comic written by the protagonist of Chasing Amy, which was to be adapted into a movie in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Kevin Smith adapted the script from the Bluntman and Chronic comics story he had originally written as a companion piece to the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

''Jay and Silent Bob Reboot'' (2019)

After losing the legal rights to their names over a film reboot of Bluntman and Chronic, Jay and Silent Bob travel across the United States in an attempt to prevent the reboot from being made.

''Clerks III'' (TBA)

Following the release of Clerks II, Smith reported that for several years after, a script was finished, but production was delayed in favor of other projects. By February 2017, he announced via his social media page that development had stopped, and the film would not be made, when Jeff Anderson dropped out of the project.
By September 2019, Smith announced that he had scrapped the previous draft, and had begun working a whole new script for the project. The filmmaker confirmed that many of the creatives from the previous films including Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran would return. The new Clerks III would follow Dante and Randal, after surviving a heart attack, making a movie at the store. The plot was initially conceived for a film adaptation of ' titled '.

''Twilight of the Mallrats'' (TBA)

On March 13, 2015, Kevin Smith confirmed that Mallrats 2 was being written and was slated to begin shooting in Summer 2016. In April 2015, Smith announced that Mallrats 2 would be his next film, instead of Clerks III as originally intended, and would begin filming in 2015. In January 2020, Smith announced that development on Mallrats 2 has started up again, under a new title Twilight of the Mallrats.

Related films

''Jay and Silent Bob VR''

In 2018, STX Entertainment announced that their Surreal division was working with Kevin Smith on a VR series that would star Jay and Silent Bob.

Recurring cast and characters

Smith often casts the same actors for multiple characters in the universe, sometimes even in the same film. This is most notable in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, in which several actors play multiple characters from earlier View Askewniverse films.
To date, Smith and Jason Mewes are the only actors to appear in every film as the same characters. Three other actors have appeared in every film, as different characters, Scott Mosier, Walt Flanagan and Brian O'Halloran, with O'Halloran always appearing as a member of the Hicks family.
The more notable recurring actors include:

Comics

A beat-em up videogame titled Jay and Silent-Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch, released in April 2016. The game was produced by a successful crowdfunding.

Additional crew and production details

Franchise chronology

;; Busing
Following Clerks, Smith wrote a film called Busing for Hollywood Pictures, a now-defunct Disney studio. It was described as "Clerks in a restaurant." The film was announced around 1994 and was intended to be part of the View Askewniverse. The film was not made, but the film was featured at the end of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as a poster parodying the Clerks poster.
;; Name
A follow-up to Chasing Amy, Smith wrote a new film set in the View Askewniverse starring the trio from Amy that was not a sequel. Smith said "it was kind of porn-bent." Affleck and Adams were interested in doing the project, but plans eventually fell through. Smith's efforts to develop a project about pornography led to the 2008 film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Smith abandoned Name in favor of Dogma.
;; Dogma II
In late November 2005, Smith responded to talk of a possible sequel to Dogma on the ViewAskew.com message boards:
Over a decade later, there has apparently been no further discussion. But in October 2017, Smith revealed that he no longer desired to make any new religious films.
Near the same time as the cancellation, just weeks before the Weinstein scandal broke to the public, Harvey Weinstein pitched to Smith about doing a sequel. Not much came from this pitch, but it was just a mere idea for Weinstein. According to Smith in an interview with Business Insider, he recalls:
Smith believes that he only got the call because, as he believes, "It was him looking to see who was a friend still because his life was about to shift completely."
;; Clerks: Sell Out
For several years following the cancellation of , Smith announced plans to make an animated film. He revealed in a commentary on Episode 6 that it would go theatrical, but later made plans to go direct-to-video. The basic plot involved Dante and Randal making a movie about their lives at the Quick Stop, a reference to the production of the original film. In an interview, Kevin Smith expanded on the delays surrounding the film. He stated that when Harvey and Bob Weinstein left Miramax, owned at the time by The Walt Disney Company, the split was not completely amicable. The rights to the Clerks television series were still owned by Disney, who as a result were reluctant to work with The Weinstein Company, throwing the future of Clerks: Sell Out into question. At the 2007 Cornell Q&A, Smith said due to the Miramax/Weinstein argument "you will see a Jay and Silent Bob cartoon before Clerks: Sell Out."
Despite the fact that Sell Out might not get made, Smith's new script for the long-awaited Clerks III will follow the original plot from the animated film.