Originally, Kevin Smith announced in 2017 that Clerks 3 was off the table after a falling-out with his friend Jeff Anderson who had played Randal Graves in Clerks - Commessi (1994) and Clerks II (2006). Anderson had read the script but chose not to be involved; Smith canceled the project and made Jay e Silent Bob - Ritorno a Hollywood (2019) instead. Two weeks before Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was released, however, Smith revealed that he had spent an entire day signing Clerks movie memorabilia together with Anderson and Jason Mewes (Jay). This reunion allowed them to patch things up, and provided him with so much inspiration that he immediately threw away the old script, and started working on a new one with ideas that Anderson was receptive to. According to Smith, it will be "a movie that concludes a saga [...] about how you're never too old to completely change your life [...] about how a decades-spanning friendship finally confronts the future."
Uses the actual Quick Stop Groceries location from the first Clerks - Commessi (1994) film in New Jersey, which is now run by the son of the original owner. Unlike the first film which could only be shot at night (hence why the shutters were jammed), the store was closed for two weeks which allowed for scenes to be shot during the day. Previously, the Quick Stop location in Jay e Silent Bob - Ritorno a Hollywood (2019), was a facade built in New Orleans, which had a much bigger parking lot and different surroundings.
(at around 44 mins) The character played by Ethan Suplee auditions using lines said by Suplee's character in the movie Generazione X (1995).
Marc Bernardin plays a character named Lando, previously introduced in Clerks (2000). This will be the character's live-action debut.