Of all of Kevin Smith’s movies, I may love Mallrats the most. Clerks holds an important place in my heart as a movie fan while Chasing Amy is one I may quote the most and Dogma is easily his most epic film, but Mallrats is the ultimate combination of John Hughes, Ivan Reitman, National Lampoon, and more. Smith’s sophomore effort was also his first movie for a studio (Gramercy Pictures, part of Universal). A critical and commercial failure, Mallrats has amassed a major fan following in the almost thirty years since it was released and talk of a sequel has been buzzing since 2015. While it was once before poised to become a television series, Smith now has our hopes up once again that the project may have found a potential home.
I recently interviewed Smith about the NFT release of his film Killroy Was Here and the topic of Twilight of the Mallrats came up. Smith said that since Universal owns the rights to Mallrats, he has limited options to get started on the sequel despite a finished screenplay and most of the original cast willing to return. Smith indicated that a television release once again may be the route he takes the sequel with Universal’s streaming platform, Peacock, the likely place it will end up. Smith said he is currently working on an unrelated project at Peacock while Mallrats 2 is currently bouncing around other sections of Universal.
Whether the finished sequel ends up being a streaming release of Twilight of the Mallrats (aka Mallrats 2)or a limited series, Smith has seen success on the small screen with his reality series Comic Book Men and Geeking Out as well as his Netflix animated series Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Whichever route it goes, the fact that we may finally get to see the continuing misadventures of Brodie Bruce, Quint, Rene, and Brandi Svenning is exciting news. Let’s just hope that kid is not back on the escalator!