Kevin Smith Reveals His Sneaky Rise Of Skywalker Cameo
Geek Supreme and extremely funny guy Kevin Smith is in Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker — not that anyone but him would notice.
Following through on a promise he made to Smith (an extremely heartwarming promise which we'll get to shortly), writer/director J.J. Abrams gave the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot filmmaker a small onscreen cameo in the final installment of the Skywalker Saga. Smith took to his Facebook page to giddily recount the circumstances which led to his small role, and to boast about how he can now be physically seen in a Star Wars movie (as opposed to the voice cameo he was given in Star Wars: The Force Awakens).
Addressing Abrams directly, Smith congratulated Abrams on Rise of Skywalker's opening, and wrote, "Thank you for letting me be in the series of flicks that I fell in love with 42 years ago!" He then explained to his fans, "Back when I had my heart attack [in 2018], J.J. sent me an email that said 'Live through this and I'll put you in Episode 9!' When they went into production last year... I wrote J.J. and asked 'So... I'm alive. That offer still good?'"
As it turned out, it was. Smith continued, "He confirmed and I flew out to England to visit [Pinewood Studios] for a few days, during which time I giddily watched J.J. do his thing until I was called into action! Ducking Stormtroopers on Kijimi, Poe passes a cyborg walking beside a bundled-up local. That local is me!" Check out the photo below, and tell us if you'd have recognized him if you didn't know.
No? Yeah, we thought not. Anyway, Smith then went on to drop a tidbit that we find to be just too awesome for words. "Thank you, my friend in the Force, for even making the offer in the first place, let alone following through on it," he wrote. "You gave me a rare sensation I haven't had since I was an action figure collecting kid in 1983 when you let me come over to your house to play [Star Wars] with you!"
The thought of the future Silent Bob and the future Star Wars director smashing action figures together in combat when they were wee tots is just amazing. It's not like Smith needed to up his cool quotient any more, though — he's probably a lot cooler than you realize.
Kevin Smith is involved in more cool stuff than you might think
Not only has Smith now been in two Star Wars movies (sure, they were very minor parts, but that's two more than you've been in), he's also the rare creative to move between the DC and Marvel universes, and we're not just talking comics. Oh, sure,we could talk about those; he's written Batman comics for the former publisher, and Daredevil and Spider-Man books for the latter. But you may not realize that Smith has helmed a fair number of episodes of two different series in the CW's Arrowverse, having contributed three installments of The Flash from 2016-2018 and four episodes of Supergirl from 2017-2018.
On top of that, Smith is cooking up an adult animated series based on one of Marvel Comics' quirkiest and most beloved characters: Howard the Duck. Although the character has appeared in a post-credits sequence in Guardians of the Galaxy and in a small, blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in Avengers: Endgame, he's arguably still most firmly associated with the extremely ill-advised 1986 live-action feature bearing his name, which is widely considered to be among the worst movies of all time (and which, incidentally, counted George Lucas among its executive producers).
Smith's series will live on Disney-controlled Hulu (no adult animated fare for Disney+, thank you very much) alongside three others: Hit-Monkey, from the Blades of Glory writing team of Josh Gordon and Will Speck; The Tigra and Dazzler Show, which will be executive produced by comedian Chelsea Handler; and M.O.D.O.K., from executive producer and writer Patton Oswalt. The four series will cross over, Avengers-style, in The Offenders, in which the principals will be forced to team up to take on some dire threat (although, according to a Hulu press release, "nobody asked them to, and we'd be better off if they didn't").
For the icing on the Geek Cake, Smith created and will produce the upcoming Netflix animated series Masters of the Universe: Revelation, which is said to tie up unresolved storylines from the beloved Filmation cartoon from the '80s. The series does not yet have a premiere date, but Smith has promised to introduce its voice cast soon; in November 2019, he took to Twitter to assure us that when this happens, "it won't break the internet; instead, it will make the internet believe that we're living in a simulation in which the programmers wanna see us smile & cry tears of joy."
Seriously, we love this guy, and we're glad we're living in a universe where no mere heart attack could keep him sidelined for long. We'll be keeping an eye out for news concerning Smith's sure-to-be-awesome animated endeavors, and we'll keep you informed.