Jay and Silent Bob was made possible by this Kevin Smith cameo

Before the dawn of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, franchise films were made in a much more improvised way. Nowadays, we’re used to studios and filmmakers having a multi-year plan for interconnected series of films and related franchises, and while that system can provide some very rewarding emotional and narrative payoffs, it doesn’t allow for the freedom of spontaneity as much. Because of this freedom, the filmmakers were able to follow their muse to places they never thought to go before, and it wasn’t just characters or moments that were made up on the fly; in some cases, an entire film was created based on a chance encounter.

That’s exactly what happened to Kevin Smith during his early years making movies in his View Askewniverse, named after the View Askew production company he started when he started making movies. Originally, the films were mostly tied together more like an Easter egg, with the only major connective tissue being the appearance of Smith Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meets Laurel and Hardy (with a dash of Cheech and Chong), the duo Jay (Jason Muse) and Silent Bob (Sam Smith) in every movie. Eventually, Jay and Silent Bob began appearing in other movies and television that weren’t made by Smith and weren’t clearly part of the View Askewniverse, though the characters’ presence obviously opened the door for loose inclusion.

There was one of those films Wes Craven The Scream 3 with the comedy duo being cast in a cameo as part of the franchise’s continued adherence to meta-blurring the lines between real life and action. It was while filming this cameo that Smith had a bit of an epiphany about his films, leading to him writing and directing the fifth View Askew film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which itself made the Askewniverse a more cohesive whole.

The appearance of Jay and Silent Bob in Scream 3 was not part of the master plan by Smith, Craven, or anyone else involved in the film. It just so happened that both Smith and The Scream were under the Miramax/Dimension Films banner, and according to a recent interview with Smith for Entertainment Weeklythese were the people from the studio who came up with the cameo:

“So the people at Miramax asked us, ‘Hey man, do you want to be in the next Scream movie as Jay and Silent Bob?’ And they said, ‘Wes is into it,’ referring to Craven.”

After filming the episodic scene, in which Jay and Silent Bob run into Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) during a tour of the studio lot where Impact 3 was filmedSmith couldn’t help but marvel at how romantic his characters looked amid the soundstage. As he recalled:

“And you have to remember most of the movies that I’ve done, all the movies that I’ve done, none of them have been much. So when we were walking around the soundstage, I was like, “That would be crazy to do a whole movie like on a soundstage… Jay and Silent Bob just tumbling around and stuff.” That’s where Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back came from.

Although the entirety of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back doesn’t take place in and around the soundstage, Smith made sure to write a lengthy plot for the film in which the duo break out into the Miramax lot, thus achieving the vision he had for set “Scream 3”.

Most of the cameos in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back consist of previous View Askewniverse characters and the actors who play them—among them Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Alanis Morissette—or Smith’s geek and comedic characters. , like Star Wars’ Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, and stand-up legend George Carlin. So, while Wes Craven’s appearance in the film might seem a little out of place on paper, it makes sense when you realize that it was Smith’s way of repaying the director for the indirect inspiration he provided. In true meta fashion, Craven appears as himself, directing Scream 4 (a full decade before he actually directed Scream 4 ), in which an orangutan known as Suzanne somehow plays Ghostface . Smith made sure to shout out the tribute in his interview:

“That’s why Wes Craven appears in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” I paid him.”

As Smith continues, all of this means that Jay and Silent Bob are not only part of the View Askewniverse, but that they are also the Scream franchise.as well as the Degrassi series (appearing in Degrassi: The Next Generation ) and DC TV’s Arrowverse comics, appearing as security guards in the episode “The Flash”. If Kevin Smith had not been open to spontaneity, neither he nor his works could have reached the level of prosperity that they have. While the lovable duo’s most recent appearances have been relegated to Jay and Silent Bob Reboot and Clerk III, keep your eyes peeled; the door is open for Jay and Silent Bob strike almost anywhere.