How To Watch Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse In Order

Established with Clerks in 1994, View Askewniverse refers to the multimedia empire that Kevin Smith built from the ground up as an indie filmmaker. In addition to the movies featuring Jay and Silent Bob, View Askew has expanded its reach across comic books, podcasts, and TV shows for its dedicated fanbase.

View Askew’s ninth feature film, Clerks III, was released in 2023 and showed Kevin Smith fans how much Dante and Randall have evolved over the years. As the View Askewniverse grows, it’s worth chronicling the entire View Askew watch order from beginning to end to chart Smith’s artistic growth as a cinematic storyteller.

Updated by Timothy Blake Donohoo on May 1, 2024: The View Askewniverse is one of the more underrated shared universes in film, and it’s had several entries throughout the years. Rising from humble indie film beginnings, the Askewniverse timeline chronicles the adventures of various characters spawned by comedian and writer Kevin Smith. The series continues to gain new entries, with more on the way. Given the somewhat confusing chronological and release timeline of the series, not to mention one entry being largely unavailable, fans will want to know how to watch the View Askewniverse in order – and where.

10 Clerks Began the View Askewniverse

Filmed on a shoestring $27,575 budget (via Dazed Digital), Clerks launched Kevin Smith’s filmmaking career and established his company View Askew Productions. The stellar directorial film debut charts a day in the life of convenience store clerks Randal and Dante, who lament their dead-end job and express hilarious Gen X grievances about pop culture.

Marked by Smith’s trademark rapid-fire dialogue and adult-oriented, vulgar sense of humor, Clerks became a massive hit on the independent festival circuit before becoming a cult classic. It’s the only place for serious View Askewniverse historians to begin, as it captures the zeitgeist of the mid-90s while also establishing Smith’s authorial voice and directorial style.

9 Mallrats Is a Mid-1990s Classic

After Clerks‘ minor success, Universal gave Smith far more resources to expand the View Askewniverse. Technically a prequel to Clerks,Mallrats follows best friends Brodie and T.S., who spend their day in a mega mall trying to win back their girlfriends while getting into a series of hijinks with sordid characters. Unlike Clerks, which eventually found its audience and became a minor financial success, Mallrats failed to resonate among moviegoers then.

When Mallrats bombed at the box office, earning just $2.1 million against a $6.1 million budget (via Box Office Mojo), Smith refocused his attention away from big broad comedies and sought to make his most personal movie yet in the next View Askewniverse entry, Chasing Amy. While the events of Mallrats precede those in Clerks, there’s no real reason to watch Mallrats first. There are only a few throwaway lines and references to what transpires in Clerks; the prequel aspect is more of a gimmick.

8 Chasing Amy Was a More Dramatic View Askewniverse Entry

As the character of Holden McNeil states in the film, Smith “finally had something to say” in Chasing Amy, easily his most mature, touching, and emotionally fraught movie of his career until then. The story of indie comic book artist Holden falling in love with Alyssa Jones, who happens to be gay, finally lived up to Smith’s potential as a cinematic storyteller. A far cry from most movies featuring Jay and Silent Bob, this View Aksewniverse movie is largely seen as a cut above the rest.

A genre-defying romantic comedy that sidesteps nearly every tired cliché known to man, Chasing Amy became a commercial and critical hit. It marked a significant rebound for Smith following the failure of Mallrats. As the third film in the View Askewniverse, a clear evolution in Smith’s work began to take shape. The performances are among the best Smith has directed to date.

Chasing Amy is available to stream on MGM+, Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, The Roku Channel, Vudu, Apple TV+

7 Dogma Is a More Contentious View Askewniverse Movie

If Chasing Amy is Smith’s most personal film, then Dogma is his most irreverent. The ambitious religious satire follows exiled angels Loki and Bartleby who try to use a loophole to return to Heaven, calling on a chosen abortion clinician to save Earth from Armageddon. This storyline made it easily the most controversial of the Kevin Smith movies.

The fourth film in the View Askewniverse, Dogma was roundly rebuked as blasphemous by the Catholic Church, which found the film deeply offensive for its controversial depiction of organized religion. Yet, the great satirical film struck a chord with the masses, earning over $30 million on a $10 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). Despite the appearance of Jay and Silent Bob, Dogma has the least connective tissue to the larger View Askewniverse in terms of characters and overarching plotlines. Due to the rights being held up by notorious producer Harvey Weinstein, this entry in the View Askewniverse is not available to stream anywhere.

Dogma is not currently available to stream

6 Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

With the success of Dogma, Smith was given a $22 million budget (via Box Office Mojo) to make Jay and Silent Bob StrikeBack, the fifth movie in the View Askewniverse. A loose sequel to Chasing Amy, the buddy stoner road movie concerns the great movie comedy duo Jay and Silent Bob attempting to stop the Hollywood movie adaptation of their famous comic book, Bluntman and Chronic.

With plenty of returning characters from Smith’s previous films, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back really ties the entire View Askewniverse together in fun new ways. The hilarious callbacks to Randal and Dante and cameos from Brody and Holden show Smith in full control of his circular, cinematic world-building. Alas, a bit too big and broad, the film drew mixed reviews and ended up being a modest financial success.

5 Clerks II Was the Next Direct View Askewniverse Sequel

Five years lapsed between Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Clerks II, the longest gap in production for any of the Kevin Smith movies. The time taken was worth it, as Clerks II marked a return to where it all started: Quick Stop. The continuation of Randal and Dante’s midlife ennui and existential crisis as fast food servers was refreshing and nostalgic.

The sixth film in the View Askewniverse, Clerks II became Smith’s biggest commercial hit, earning $27 million against a $5 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). A smaller, more honest, and intimate affair that honors the spirit of the original while pushing the character development further and crass humor up a notch, Clerks II proves that Smith’s original movie success was not a fluke and that there’s real merit in reuniting with characters 10 years later.

4 Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie!

After directing a few movies outside the View Askewniverse, Smith returned in 2013 with Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie! The seventh entry and first animated View Askewniverse film finds Jay and Silent Bob becoming real superheroes Bluntman and Chronic after winning a $10 million lottery ticket at Quick Stop and building a secret fortress beneath RST Video.

With plenty of cool comic book tie-ins to View Askewniverse’s past, a la Chasing Amy‘s Lipstick Lesbians and Mark Hamill’s C***knocker, Smith even takes hysterical swipes at his pal Ben Affleck’s past Daredevil debacle. There’s even a touching tribute to the late great Stan Lee (years before he passed away), who famously starred in Mallrats. The film was written as a companion piece to Jay andSilent Bob Strike Back. However, in terms of narrative chronology, it can be viewed either before or after Clerks II without making much difference in the Clerks timeline.

Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie is available to stream on Freevee

3 Jay & Silent Bob Reboot

As the eighth film in the View Askewniverse, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot finds the title characters attempting to stop another Hollywood production based on their comic book likeness after accidentally signing their rights away. Despite the attempt to skewer the current Hollywood landscape of having no originality and making only sequels and reboots based on preexisting IP, the film trampled the same old ground as the original. It failed to find traction as a result

The disappointing Jay & Silent Bob franchise reboot drew lackluster reviews. It failed to earn half of its budget back (via Box Office Mojo), leaving Smith to return to the drawing board and reinvent himself beyond the View Askewniverse. Regarding narrative chronology, it’s important to view this movie in order of release. Beyond just the Clerks timeline, it shows the economic paradigm shift in Hollywood from 2001 to 2019.

2 Clerks III Is the Latest View Askewniverse Movie

Never mind the drawing board, Smith returned to the well again with Clerks III, the ninth film in the View Askewniverse. Paralleling Smith’s own health issues, the story finds Randal recovering from a heart attack and making a movie about Quick Stop with the help of Dante, Jay, and Silent Bob.

An emotional return to where it all started in 1994, Clerks III finds Smith at his most reflective and contemplative state. The latest of the Kevin Smith movies has him exploring his mortality through Randall as he ages, endures a health scare, and vows to find meaning in his life before it’s over. It’s imperative to watch Clerks III in the order it was released, as the passage of time makes the story so poignant.

Clerks III is available to stream on Starz, Hulu, The Roku Channel, Philo, Sling TV, and Amazon Prime Video

1 The Future of the View Askewniverse

Currently, more entries are planned for the View Askewniverse, which will have another sequel in the form of a Mallrats follow-up, currently titled Twilight of the Mallrats. In production since 2015, the film has been held up for several years and was once planned to be made before Clerks III. Other films feature characters from the Askewniverse timeline that aren’t officially tied to the shared universe. These are Drawing Files, Scream 3, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Madness in the Method, with Jay and Silent Bob notably appearing in Scream 3.

Clerks: The Animated Series is also set in the View Askewniverse, but the short-lived cartoon only lasted six episodes. The Flying Car and Clerks: The Lost Scene were short films set in the Askewniverse timeline, with the latter based on comic books based on the series. Jay and Silent Bob also appeared on a three-episode stint on Degrassi: The Next Generation, which contained an in-universe View Askewniverse film called Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh?

There have since been Clerks and Bluntman and Chronic comic books, as well as a Chasing Dogma series. The Bluntman titles are treated as the “official” fictional comic books created by Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards, and the works officially tied to the View Askewniverse are largely considered canon. There are even “unofficial” appearances, such as Jay and Silent Bob appearing in the original English-language manga Aoi House. This shows how popular and influential the View Askewniverse films are, with Kevin Smith’s humor being a big draw for fans of different generations.