Back to the mall! The 1995 classic Mallrats is finally getting a sequel.
Writer and director Kevin Smith teased the long-awaited installment in a new interview with Tucson’s KFMA Rock 102 radio station. Less than 24 hours before he went on the Shmonty & Carolina morning show, Smith, 44, first hinted at the follow-up film on Twitter.
“We shoot CLERKS III in May. HIT SOMEBODY shoots September to Christmas. Then in Feb 2016, we do MOOSE JAWS. But after that? I smell a rat…” the funnyman tweeted on Thursday, March 12, referencing his upcoming projects, including Mallrats 2.
Rock 102’s Shmonty brought the tweet up in his interview with Smith, and asked the actor point-blank if a sequel was happening or not.
“Umm… yeah,” Smith said after hesitating slightly. “Yeah, that is the first time I said it. Yeah, yeah, that’s what we’re working on.”
“It’s half a script right now, and we’re pulling our loot together,” the Clerks star continued. “I mean, we’ve got up until the beginning of 2016… By the time we get to May 2016, we’re going to be shooting… It kind of came out of nowhere.”
If the movie stays on schedule, it will hit theaters more than 20 years after the October 1995 release of the original Mallrats. Starring Shannen Doherty, Ben Affleck, Jeremy London, and Jason Lee, among others, the hilarious flick about teen shenanigans in the mall quickly became a cult favorite.
“Lately I’ve been doing this thing where I’m like, ‘Well, do you want to do what’s good for your career, or do you just want to have fun?'” Smith told Rock 102. “Nobody’s clamoring for a Mallrats sequel, but I would love to make one. It’s been like 20 years. I had a cool idea and a bunch of investors that were like, ‘Do it!’ So here we are, man. Kinda neat.”
While Smith did not disclose which original stars he’s reenlisting for the sequel, he did add that he has high hopes for the upcoming project.
“Hopefully it will be fun,” he said, “and not an utter disaster.”