Kevin Patrick Smith is an American director, producer, screenwriter, actor and comic book writer. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy buddy film Clerks (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in as the character Silent Bob of stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob, characters who also appeared in Smith's later films Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Clerks II (2006), Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019), and Clerks III (2022) which are set primarily in his home state of New Jersey. While not strictly sequential, the films have crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon known as the "View Askewniverse", named after Smith's production company View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.
Jay and Silent Bob are fictional characters portrayed by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively, in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, a fictional universe created and used in most of the films, comics, and television programs written and produced by Smith, starting with Clerks.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a 2001 American satirical stoner buddy comedy film written, co-edited, and directed by Kevin Smith and produced and co-edited by Scott Mosier. The film is the fifth set in the View Askewniverse, a growing collection of characters and settings that developed out of Smith's cult-favorite Clerks. It stars Jason Mewes and Smith respectively as the two eponymous characters. The film also stars Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Will Ferrell, Eliza Dushku, Ali Larter, and Chris Rock, among many others, most of which in cameo appearances. The title and logo for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back are direct references to The Empire Strikes Back.
Clerks is a 1994 American black-and-white comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith in his feature directorial debut.
The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards was an annual contest put forth by Lucasfilm and AtomFilms to showcase and acknowledge the growing genre of fan films made by, for, and about fans of the Star Wars saga. The inaugural contest in 2002 was the first time Lucasfilm had officially sanctioned the genre. In 2007, the contest was renamed the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. In 2012, Lucasfilm announced that the contest was being discontinued, and that the company was looking for "new ways for fans to share their creativity".
Clerks II is a 2006 American black comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, the sequel to his 1994 film Clerks, and his sixth feature film to be set in the View Askewniverse. The film stars Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Rosario Dawson, Trevor Fehrman, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, Jason Mewes, and Smith, and picks up with the original characters from Clerks: Dante Hicks, Randal Graves and Jay and Silent Bob ten years after the events of the first film. Unlike the first film, which was shot in black and white, this film was shot mostly in color.
Knightquest is a fan film that made its debut on the internet in October 2001, created by fans of the Star Wars franchise. It is a live-action drama set in the Star Wars universe, taking place a few weeks before the events in A New Hope. It depicts Darth Vader's ongoing quest to seek out and destroy any Jedi who may have escaped the great purge years ago.
The View Askewniverse is a fictional universe created by writer/director Kevin Smith, featured in several films, comics and a television series; it is named for Smith's production company, View Askew Productions. The characters Jay and Silent Bob appear in almost all the View Askewniverse media, and characters from one story often reappear or are referred to in others. Smith often casts the same actors for multiple characters in the universe, sometimes even in the same film; Smith himself portrays the character of Silent Bob.
Clerks is an American adult animated sitcom created by Kevin Smith for ABC. Based on Smith's 1994 comedy film of the same name, it was developed for television by Smith, Smith's producing partner Scott Mosier and former Seinfeld writer David Mandel with character designs by Stephen Silver, known for character designs in Disney Channel's Kim Possible and Nickelodeon's Danny Phantom. It is the first television show to be set in Smith's View Askewniverse. It is Disney’s second adult animated television series after The PJs.
Sith Apprentice is a Star Wars fan film that made its debut on the internet on March 29, 2005, directed by John E. Hudgens and co-written by Hudgens, Denny Humbard, and Men in Black creator Lowell Cunningham. Made for around $1000, it is a spoof of Star Wars and The Apprentice, with Emperor Palpatine filling the Donald Trump role in his search for a new apprentice. The final candidates in the film are Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and Jar Jar Binks.
The 501st Legion is an international fan-based organization dedicated to the construction and wearing of screen-accurate replicas of Imperial Stormtrooper armor, Sith Lords, Clone Troopers, bounty hunters, and other villains from the Star Wars universe. The 501st Legion, called by its nickname Vader's Fist, is made up entirely of volunteers.
George Lucas's science fiction multi-film Star Wars saga has had a significant impact on modern popular culture. Star Wars references are deeply embedded in popular culture; references to the main characters and themes of Star Wars are casually made in many English-speaking countries with the assumption that others will understand the reference. Darth Vader has become an iconic villain, while characters such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2 have all become widely recognized characters around the world. Phrases such as "evil empire", "May the Force be with you", Jedi mind trick and "I am your father" have become part of the popular lexicon. The first Star Wars film in 1977 was a cultural unifier, enjoyed by a wide spectrum of people.
Tag and Bink are the main characters in a Star Wars spoof series of comic books that parody the films. The characters were created by writer Kevin Rubio and artist Lucas Marangon. They are a pair of minor characters who deliberately or accidentally influence the events in the first and second film trilogies, whose activities explain some of the implausible events of the series. The title of their initial appearance—Tag & Bink Are Dead—is a reference to the Tom Stoppard play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, itself titled after a line from Hamlet.
A Star Wars Pez is a Pez candy dispenser themed after the Star Wars movies, and is one of the company's most prominent merchandising deals. Over 90 dispensers have been released on the market from 1997 to 2022, among the many collectibles spawned by the franchise.
Stormtroopers are soldiers in the fictional Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. Introduced in the original Star Wars film, the stormtroopers are the shock troops/space marines of the autocratic Galactic Empire, under the leadership of Emperor Palpatine and his lieutenants, most notably Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, during the original film trilogy (1977–1983) and Rebels (2014–18). The prequel trilogy (1999–2005) and The Clone Wars (2008–2020) explores their predecessors in the Galactic Republic's clone troopers, clones of the bounty hunter Jango Fett, used by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to "win" the Clone Wars and later to take over the government and exterminate the Jedi. After this, in The Bad Batch (2021–present), stormtroopers are established as human recruits, trained by clone troopers gradually being phased out of active service; at the time of the original trilogy, only a few stormtroopers are clones, with the only known legion to still contain a significant number of clones being the 501st Legion, a.k.a. "Vader's Fist", with many stormtroopers remaining in service to Imperial remnants following the Empire's fall under Moff Gideon and Grand Admiral Thrawn in The Mandalorian (2019–present) and Ahsoka (2023–present). In the sequel trilogy (2015–2019), the First Order employs stormtroopers under the leadership of Supreme Leader Snoke and his enforcers, most notably Kylo Ren, General Hux, and Captain Phasma.
"Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II" is a 2008 episode of the television comedy series Robot Chicken, and the sequel to the Annie Award winning "Robot Chicken Star Wars", which aired as a one-off special during Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block on November 16, 2008. Like "Robot Chicken: Star Wars" it has been released on its own DVD, on July 21, 2009, and will not be part of a season box set. The DVD contains the original broadcast version, and the "Extended Version", which features an additional 15 minutes of footage cut from the broadcast version. It was nominated for a 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.
Jay & Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie! is a 2013 American adult animated comedy film written by Kevin Smith, directed by Steve Stark, and produced by Jason Mewes and Jordan Monsanto. The film's script was adapted from the Bluntman And Chronic comic book story originally written by Smith as a companion piece to his 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and it is the seventh film in the View Askewniverse.
Shooting Clerks is a 2023 British-American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Christopher Downie and starring Brian O'Halloran, Mark Frost, Jason Mewes, Scott Schiaffo, Matthew Postlethwaite and Kevin Smith. It was produced by Auld Reekie Media. It had a preview screening in Orlando, Florida on October 22, 2016. The film had a special screening in Kevin Smith's home town of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey on November 11, 2016.
Clerks III is a 2022 American dark comedy-drama film written, produced, directed, and edited by Kevin Smith and stars Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Trevor Fehrman, Austin Zajur, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson and Smith. It serves as a standalone sequel to the 1994 and 2006 Clerks films, and is the ninth overall feature film set in the View Askewniverse. In the film, Randal Graves, after surviving a massive heart attack, enlists his friends and fellow clerks Dante Hicks, Elias Grover, and Jay and Silent Bob to make a movie about their lives at the Quick Stop Convenience store that started it all.
