Kevin Smith Just Dropped Amazing News For Clerks 3

The 1990s was an incredible decade for independent movie makers. Jon Favreau wrote "Swingers," Quentin Tarantino crafted both "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," and Spike Lee evolved from "Do the Right Thing" to "Malcolm X."

Among all those independent creators finding mainstream success was an unassuming comic book nerd who took his experiences of working and bumming around Red Bank, New Jersey and turned it into one of the most instantly recognizable and relatable Gen X movies of all time: "Clerks." The man behind the story and the camera was Kevin Smith, and the story of "Clerks" was all about how crummy, existential, but also fun it could be working low-rent retail gigs in the greater New York tri-state area.

"Clerks" was the movie that made Smith a household name, and he used the film's smash success to make more classics like "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy," "Dogma," and many more over the decades since "Clerks" was first released in 1994. No matter how far Smith's career took him, his titular clerks Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) always remained beloved by both Smith's fans and himself.

In 2006, Smith released "Clerks II," a film which revisited Dante and Randal in much the way John Updike revisited Rabbit Angstrom in his "Rabbit" series so we could see just how far they hadn't traveled over the course of a decade. The pair still worked retail (now at the fictional chain restaurant, Mooby's), and the existential crisis of what life is meant to be loomed larger than ever.

Smith has long spoken about his desire to make a "Clerks III," but today, we found out officially that "Clerks III" is really happening.

Kevin Smith took to his Facebook page to drop a little Tao quote — "To be great is to go on, to go on is to go far, to go far is to return." And the reason why Smith used that particular quote is because, according to Smith, "Lionsgate just gave me the best gift I could ever ask for: the money to make another sequel to my debut film!" Not only that, but Smith revealed we won't have long to wait — "Clerks III shoots next month," he wrote excitedly.

Smith also confirmed that cast members from both "Clerks" and "Clerks II" are returning, including Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, and Trevor Fehrman. While it's exciting to see so many returning faces, it's an especially big deal seeing the return of Ghigliotti who played Dante's underserved girlfriend Veronica in "Clerks." We haven't really seen Veronica in Smith's View Askew-niverse since, so it'll be exciting to see how her return impacts Dante and his relationship with Becky (Dawson).

We've known for a little while that Smith would be utilizing the experience of his own brush with death after a heart attack to fuel the story of "Clerks III," but he also gave fans so more details on that score as well.

"In the story this time, I give Randal the heart attack that almost killed me," writes Smith. "But rather than succumb to the reality of middle age, Randal rages against the dying light by telling the story of his life in an indie film he shoots with his fellow clerks at Quick Stop!"

"Clerks III" is currently set for release in 2022.