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 Strike Back, 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