Kevin Smith's Clerks 3 Trailer: See Jay and Silent Bob Return 28 Years After Original Movie

Kevin Smith is back to work with a new Clerks.

The writer/director, 51, debuted the first trailer for Clerks 3 on Wednesday, showing the return of his character Silent Bob and Jason Mewes' Jay, plus Rosario Dawson, Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran and cameos from Ben Affleck, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Fred Armisen.

Clerks 3's plot is about Randal (Anderson) having a serious heart attack and becoming inspired to make a movie about his life working at the convenience store with his friends and coworkers.

Smith told Vanity Fair in August that the story was inspired by his own health scare: The filmmaker suffered a near-fatal "widowmaker" heart attack back in 2018. "The film is predicated on the idea that Randal survives a heart attack, a massive heart attack, quite like I did, and then winds up, you know, deciding that he's wasted his life," he said. "But before he dies he wants to memorialize himself. He wants to make a movie. So our boys essentially wind up making Clerks."

The first cult-classic Clerks film was released in 1994, followed by a sequel in 2006. The Jay and Silent Bob characters also appear in 1995's Mallrats, 1997's Chasing Amy, 1999's Dogma, 2001's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and 2019's Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

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Sharing the trailer on Instagram, Smith wrote, "In 1993, I made my first film, #Clerks. In 2006, I made my 7th film #clerks2. This fall, I proudly present my 14th film - CLERKS III! And today, I give you the Jersey-joyful TRAILER! The story of Dante & Randal & @jayandsilentbob continues back where it all began: in the l'il shop around the corner called @quickstopgroceries!"

"Join the Clerk-y boys, Elias, Becky, Emma, and many more old friends as they use art to try to imitate life behind the counter!" he continued. "One year ago from today, I flew to Jersey to start #clerks3 and I couldn't be happier to share the results with you now! With all the s--- going on in the world, set aside some catch-up time to laugh your ass off along with old (and I mean *really* old) friends!"

Smith also told Vanity Fair about reaching new audiences with another sequel decades later.

"I know we've got fans who age with us … and it's going to hit in a lot of personal places. I don't think the 20-somethings are going to be like, 'He's still the voice of a generation!' They're going to be like, 'Well, he's the voice of middle age, if anything, at this point.' I hope young people will find something to enjoy about it, but it's definitely a movie about people who try to be young while being old," he explained.

"All of us are in our late 40s, if not 50s … and you'll see the progression," added Smith. "We don't hide the age. We don't Hollywood it up. We all look as old as we look. Um, except [Dawson]. She never ages, man. She's preserved in amber."

Clerks 3 will be shown in theaters for two nights only on Tuesday, Sept. 13, and Thursday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. local time at more than 700 theaters across the country.