Kevin Smith Suggests ‘Tusk’ Sequel and ‘Moose Jaws’ Might be Merged Together!
The True North Trilogy will be complete! Hopefully!
updated on
In a recent interview in support of his latest film, The 4:30 Movie (2024), Kevin Smith dropped a tantalizing bit of news about the long-awaited sequel to Tusk (2014)! When the subject of Moose Jaws—the upcoming third film in his True North thematic trilogy—and a direct sequel to Tusk came up, Smith slowly interlocked his fingers and said, “what if those two things were the same thing?”
If you’re excited about that statement (provided by the wonderful interview by The Hollywood News on YouTube), then you must be a pretty big fan of Kevin Smith (like me!). If that statement barely makes sense to you, then here’s a brief rundown of the history leading up to this momentous announcement.
Table of Contents
The Beginning of the True North Trilogy
Back in 2014, Tusk was released. The idea for the film originated in episode 259 of SModcast, the podcast hosted by Kevin Smith and his friend/colleague Scott Mosier. The podcast episode, titled “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” laid out the basic premise of the eventual movie. Despite being released by A24, the theatrical potential of Tusk was sunk by an extremely limited release with little advertising. It was only screened in about 600 theaters, and two weeks later that number dropped well below 100. Despite its unfortunate start, Tusk has managed to maintain a loyal following from passionate fans in the decade since its release (it made our list of best horror films of the 2010s).
If you’ve never seen it, Tusk is about an arrogant podcaster, Wallace, who interviews an eccentric old man, Howard Howe, in his secluded Canadian home. Long story short [SPOILER], Howard wants to turn Wallace into a walrus, and he succeeds.
Tusk came out in September of 2014, and before the year was over Kevin Smith was already talking about more movies set in this new Canadian shared universe. He had the idea for his True North Trilogy which would be three standalone movies which shared a few of the same characters. So, essentially the same idea as his View Askewniverse which started with Clerks (1994) and contains multiple movies with recurring characters, but the movies aren’t necessarily sequels to each other (though some are). It’s a shared universe. You get it.
The True North Expands with Yoga Hosers
The movies announced for the True North Trilogy were Tusk, Yoga Hosers, and Moose Jaws. Yoga Hosers was already filming in August of 2014 before Tusk was released, and it came out in 2016. Yoga Hosers is about two teenage convenience store clerks named Colleen who fight against a Nazi plot and tiny bratwurst monsters (aka Bratzis). The movie didn’t do fare well with critics or the box office, and the future of the True North Trilogy was in doubt.
The Potential of Tusk 2
Jumping forward a few years to 2020, Smith spoke about the possibility of Tusk 2 on a livestream of his show What’s in the Box. He spoke about a potential sequel story where Wallace (again played by Justin Long) becomes the new maniac who puts someone else through the body horror that Howard Howe put him through. However, no indications of any definite plans to make the movie were given.
Then, in September of 2022 on Smith’s podcast Fat Man Beyond which he co-hosts with Marc Bernardin, Kevin said that he wanted a sequel to Tusk to be released in 2024 for the original movie’s tenth anniversary. He again mentioned his idea to take Wallace out of the walrus skin and make him the villain. He also added that the movie would be titled Tusk$, which is “tusks” with a dollar sign in place of the “s,” which is inspired by a story of James Cameron writing Alien$ on a sheet of paper while pitching his idea for what would eventually become Aliens (1986).
Moose Jaws Returns to the News
Around this same time, talk of Moose Jaws—which is described as “Jaws but with a moose instead of a shark”—continued to persist. At a GalaxyCon convention in December of 2022, Kevin Smith said that “it looks like Moose Jaws is finally gonna happen” while talking about his upcoming film projects. At the time, Smith said that the funding for the film would come from Lionsgate.
The Future of the True North Trilogy
News on both Moose Jaws and Tusk$ was hard to come by after that. Tusk$ did not happen in 2024 like Kevin Smith wanted, but then, The Hollywood News released their interview with Smith on November 4th, 2024. And that brings us back to where we started. Smith said in the interview that he’s been talking to Justin Long lately about the Tusk sequel as well as Moose Jaws, and they very well could be the same movie once it’s released. He didn’t go into any further detail, so we don’t know if Smith’s idea to turn Wallace into a villain is still part of the story, but the possibilities are intriguing.
Smith’s latest film, The 4:30 Movie, is doing well with critics and audiences, so that could help bolster his chances at finally finishing his True North Trilogy. When? Who knows. But for fans of Kevin Smith, no wait is too long. We waited sixteen years for Clerks III (2022), and that film is fantastic. So whenever he can convince a studio to give him the budget for his wild passion project, we’ll be here waiting.
