With production underway on Clerks III, actor/filmmaker Kevin Smith marked the occasion by breaking out the original hoodie he wore while playing Silent Bob in the movie that kicked off his View Askewniverse.

"This is a stoner hoodie I bought in [Seattle], circa 1992. In 1993, I wore it as half of [Jay and Silent Bob] in [Clerks]," Smith wrote in the caption accompanying the photos on his Instagram. "For the last 20 years or so, it’s been framed and hanging in [Jay and Silent Bob stash]. We cracked it open because it’s gonna play in [Clerks III], and the thought was that the wardrobe department was gonna have to duplicate it - because there’s no way I was gonna fit into it nearly 30 years after we shot the flick. Well lo and behold, I do! It’s dusty, but it still fits - just like the character."

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Clerks III will serve as the eighth live-action feature film set in the fictional universe of Jay (Jason Mewes), Silent Bob and the stoner duo's many associates. Thirteen years after Clerks II released in theaters, Smith revived the View Askewniverse with 2019's Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, a sequel/pseudo-reboot of the franchise that marked Smith's first time directing a movie after experiencing a nearly-fatal heart attack in February 2018. That event also serves as the inspiration for Clerks III, which Smith completely rewrote after abandoning an earlier iteration of the project.

Mirroring what happened to Smith in his actual life, Clerks III sees Randal (Jeff Anderson) suffering a massive heart attack before reuniting with Dante (Brian O'Halloran), Becky (Rosario Dawson), Jay and Silent Bob to make a film immortalizing his life as a convenience store clerk. In a later update on Instagram, Smith confirmed he celebrated his 51st birthday by getting filming started on-location on New Jersey.

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"[Clerks III will] be a movie that concludes a saga. It’ll be a movie about how you’re never too old to completely change your life. It’ll be a movie about how a decades-spanning friendship finally confronts the future," Smith wrote when he re-announced the film in October 2019. "It’ll be a movie that brings us back to the beginning - a return to the cradle of civilization in the great state of [New Jersey]."

Lionsgate has yet to announce an official release date for Clerks III. Smith is also gearing up for the release of the second half of his animated Netflix series Masters of the Universe: Revelation.

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Source: Instagram