We assure you, this is the trailer for Clerks III

Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse, the cinematic universe he’s been returning to sporadically over the last 30 years, is, once again, expanding. Returning to his Jersey roots and earliest characters, Smith is re-opening the Quick Stop for Clerks III. Snoochie boochies, indeed.

Clerks III picks up where the last one left off, with our heroes Dante and Randall (Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson) still working at the Quick Stop. Sure, RST Video now sells weed over the counter, which is nice, but time has been cruel to our boys. They’re still at work, serving jerks that don’t appreciate them. But all that changes when Randall collapses at work, suddenly realizes he’s been wasting his life, and decides to make a movie. Watch the trailer and marvel at how Kevin Smith picked the exact right time to get Ben Affleck back in one of these things.

This being a Kevin Smith movie, there’s a wacky roll-out in place of a VOD dump or a full U.S. release. Instead, Clerks III will play in more than 700 U.S. movie theaters for two nights on September 13 and September 15 at 7 p.m. via Fathom Events. Additionally, Smith is taking the movie on tour as part of a roadshow, which he did for Jay And Silent Bob Reboot and Red State.

Smith is also hosting an Instagram Live event with Mewes, O’Halloran, and Anderson that started 15 minutes ago. So you can jump over to Smith’s personal Instagram feed if you want to see the director make a few self-deprecating jokes about his career.

Clerks III will be the first time Smith’s returned to the View Askewniverse since 2019's Jay And Silent Bob Reboot, a title that feels like it’s missing a word. However, it’s been even longer since we saw a proper Clerks. In 2006, Smith made a direct sequel to his first film, which saw the clerks getting a job at a fast-food restaurant. Now it would be easy to draw a direct line from the food at Mooby’s to Randall’s heart attack, but we’ll avoid making any conclusions until the film is released.