Kevin Smith reveals Mallrats 2 will deal with the effects the coronavirus pandemic is having on malls in America. The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 has led to businesses shutting down as countries try to slow the spread of the virus. For the entertainment industry, this has meant the delay of movie release dates, TV shows being unable to finish their episodes, and late-night hosts broadcasting from their homes. It’s a strange time, to be sure, and Smith is certain this pandemic is something people will be talking about for years to come.
Recently, Smith shared that being in self-isolation is allowing him to finish working on his scripts for both Mallrats 2 and Clerks 3. The writer-director also revealed his title for the Mallrats sequel – Twilight of the Mallrats. Given that, it’s pretty clear Smith was already planning for Mallrats 2 to explore the end of mall culture as it existed when the original Mallrats released in 1995. Sadly, the impact of the coronavirus is just another blow being dealt to the already dying malls, and Smith is making sure his movie doesn’t ignore it.
During the most recent episode of Smith’s podcast, FatMan Beyond LIVE!, discussion about the ongoing pandemic inevitably came up. While talking about its effects on the filmmaking industry, Smith shared some of the research he had already been doing for Mallrats 2, mentioning how now the impact of the coronavirus is only exacerbating what was already a difficult time for many retail stores. This, of course, will factor in to his Mallrats sequel, which like the 1995 original, is in a mall. You can read Smith’s full quote, below:
I was working on Twilight of the Mallrats, the Mallrats 2 script, and so I had just read last night articles about the retail apocalypse, where 2020 was going to be the death nail for a bunch of stores anyway. But the pandemic has escalated that, made it worse, and we’re about see a lot big box stores, big name stores that you and I have known for most of our lives just go away forever. That means massive vacancies in malls, so they’re predicting the implosion, the entire implosion of malls–I mean, they were already teetering–but the entire implosion of malls across America. So, as a guy who’s writing a movie set in a mall, I’m like, ‘Well that’s useful information for my line of work.’ So I had to start writing the pandemic into the movie because clearly this is going to be remembered for all time. It’s not like, ‘Oh, why would you make a–that’s so topical, the coronavirus happened last year.’ You’ll still be hearing corona-related stories and plotlines and drops for the next five to ten years the same way post-September 11th, that was everywhere.
The mid-90s already saw mall culture on the decline from its 1980s heydey, but movies would continue to feature malls. Films like 1995’s Clueless all the way up to 2004’s Mean Girls would include a mall as a prominent setting, but they aren’t included in recent movies nearly as much, and especially not as a cornerstone of teen and young adult life. Being that Mallrats is a film by Kevin Smith and part of his View Askewniverse, it was never a going to be quite like other 1980s teen movies set in malls, but it still gives a good impression of American malls in their prime. It makes sense, then, for a sequel to address how malls are no longer the center piece of our social lives, and in fact, have been falling to wayside ever since Mallrats first released.
As Smith mentions, the ongoing shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic are only going to make the end of malls as we know them happen much faster, and Smith plans for Mallrats 2 to document that. He also isn’t wrong about the impact COVID-19 has had on basically all aspects of society continuing to be part of the zeitgeist for years no matter how quickly life returns to normal. Chances are, Mallrats 2 isn’t going to be the first or the last movie to include the pandemic as a plot point.
Source: FatMan Beyond LIVE!
