Kevin Smith’s Mallrats Sequel Headed To Television

Indie comedy writer-director Kevin Smith is in what can only be described as an… interesting phase of his career right now. (Well, that’s the adjective we’re going with, at least.)

Smith’s latest film, 'Yoga Hosers’ stars his daughter Harley Quinn Smith and Johnny Depp’s daughter Lily-Rose Melody Depp as yoga-loving Canadian high schoolers doing battle with Nazi bratwursts. From that synopsis alone, it’s not hard to see why many are puzzled over who this film is actually for, and the trailers have done little to help.

However, one long-promised Smith project with an audience-in-waiting is the sequel to his 1995 sophomore movie ‘Mallrats.’ This has been on the cards for some time, with almost all the original cast (with the notable exception of Ben Affleck) reportedly set to return.

Now, Smith has revealed to Philadelphia radio station WMMR that the ‘Mallrats’ sequel will instead be brought to life as a TV show.

After explaining the long and tricky process of getting the sequel off the ground, Smith explains how his recent work on television - specifically an acclaimed episode of ‘The Flash’ - made him “feel at home in the medium.”

This led to Smith being asked by MGM to get involved in a TV adaptation of cult 80s movie ‘Buckaroo Banzai,’ which he revealed has been picked up by an as-yet undisclosed network.

Because of all this small-screen success, Smith began “reconfiguring the idea of doing ‘Mallrats’ not as a film but as a series… so instead of a ‘Mallrats’ movie, I’m gonna do 10 episodes of a ‘Mallrats’ series instead.”

The director says he’s finalising a deal with studio Universal (who own ‘Mallrats’) to make this happen, though no TV potential networks are mentioned.

The idea of ‘Mallrats’ getting a follow-up of any sort seemed absurd for many years, given that the film bombed on its US theatrical release, making barely $2 million. (It went straight to video in the UK.)

However, it quickly garnered a cult following, thanks to Smith’s trademark witticism-riddled (not to mention expletive-laden) dialogue, and a charismatic ensemble boasting a number of future big names including Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, Claire Forlani and Jason Mewes.

‘Mallrats’ also helped normalise comic book fan culture in the popular consciousness, arguably helping pave the way for the comic book movie boom that would arise within a few years of its release: the memorable cameo from Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee didn’t hurt in that regard.

In addition, 'Mallrats’ was a key title in Smith’s (pre-Marvel) cinematic universe, the ‘Askewniverse:’ incorporating ‘Clerks’ and its sequel, ‘Chasing Amy,’ ‘Dogma’ and ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,’ all of which starred Smith and Mewes as Jay and Silent Bob. ('Strike Back’ also saw Jason Lee reprise his ‘Mallrats’ role of Brodie).

There’s a certain logic to the ‘Mallrats’ sequel getting a TV sequel, as another cult 90s comedy which flopped on release, ‘Wet Hot American Summer,’ recently had a prequel series on Netflix (correction: the original came out in 2001); not to mention the ‘Evil Dead’ TV sequel series ‘Ash Vs Evil Dead.’

Smith had earlier christened the sequel ‘Mallbrats,’ and revealed it would centre on Brodie holding a comic convention in the mall which comes under attack by terrorists.

Whether this is still the plan for the series remains to be seen. Before that, ‘Yoga Hosers’ will have its UK premiere on 21 June at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

Picture Credit: Universal

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