Kevin Smith’s Best Movie Makes 2026 Return to Streaming

32 years after it was first released, Kevin Smith’s greatest movie is back on streaming. Kevin Smith is still going strong as a director, having recently released The 4:30 Movie, Clerks III, and Moose Jaws. He also has several new sequels to his classic films in the pipeline, like Jay and Silent Bob: Store Wars, and the long-awaited Dogma 2. But, HBO Max is letting Kevin Smith fans go right back to the beginning with the director’s first, and easily his best movie (although Dogma is in close second place).

Kevin Smith’s indie masterpiece, Clerks, was recently added to HBO Max’s streaming library. The black-and-white comedy was added to the streaming platform on Jun. 1 and is expected to remain on the site for several months, if not an entire year. Frustratingly, streaming services never give exact dates for when films will leave their platforms until it’s nearly too late.

Written and directed by Kevin Smith, Clerks is one of the defining films of the 1990s indie film movement. Made for a shockingly low budget of $25k (which came from Kevin Smith’s maxed-out credit cards), Clerks follows two employees of a local convenience store as they go about their daily lives and just try to get by — if that doesn’t sound like a ’90s indie movie, nothing does. Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson lead the film as Dante and Randal, respectively. The film also stars Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer, Scott Mosier, Jason Mewes, and Kevin Smith himself.

‘Clerks’ Started an Entire Cinematic Universe Years Before the MCU

Forget Iron Man and the MCU, Kevin Smith did that over a decade prior. Kevin Smith used the success of Clerks to expand it into an entire cinematic universe. Following Clerks, Smith released Mallrats in 1995 and Chasing Amy in 1997. While they’re not direct sequels, they are all set in the View Askewniverse, Kevin Smith’s cinematic universe.

Almost all of Kevin Smith’s films take place in the View Askewniverse, including Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Yoga Hosers, and The 4:30 Movie. The most obvious through-line is Jay and Silent Bob, the iconic characters played by Jayson Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively.

‘Clerks’ Isn’t the Only Kevin Smith Movie on HBO Max

Clerks‘ addition to HBO Max isn’t just an excuse to re-watch Kevin Smith’s iconic indie hit again; it also comes as a potential double bill. Alongside Clerks, one of Smith’s other critical hits, Chasing Amy was also added to HBO Max at the start of June. Starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Ethan Suplee, Jason Lee, Casey Affleck, and Matt Damon (before they became major stars), the film follows two fledgling comic book artists who navigate life and love as struggling artists. As well as helping to launch the careers of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, it also cemented Kevin Smith as one of the best directors of the 1990s.