After years of consideration and a real "will they, won't they" relationship, it seems that Kevin Smith may finally be crafting the sequel to his mad-cap horror comedy Tusk. Released in 2014, the film marked a bizarre turn in Smith's career even after he'd already jumped to horror with Red State, as it stepped fully into the realm of grotesque body horror. In an interview with Slash Film, the original film's star Justin Long said that Smith was returning to the bizarre world of the film.

"You'll be happy to hear, Kevin [Smith] just announ– I mean, I guess they're talking about it. They're doing Tusk 2, I think," Long told Lex Briscuso. He reaffirmed his statement, adding that Smith had even reached out to the original cast to notify them about the sequel. "He texted us all the other day, Haley [Joel Osment] and Genesis [Rodriguez], and he told us that he wanted to do it, and I thought it was a joke. And then I realized he was being serious. And then one of the [other] interviewers said, 'Yeah, he said the same to me.'"

Tusk featured Long playing podcaster Wallace Bryton whose latest scoop turns into his worst nightmare as he goes to interview a reclusive, seemingly-disabled sailor (Michael Parks) who promises tantalizing tales and, more importantly, has a fascination with a particular walrus that saved him out at sea. What made this film so out there, especially for Smith, was the fact that Wallace is turned into a human walrus with a truly disturbing skin suit and tusks. Despite the mediocre reception of the film, Wallace's transformed appearance and the horrifying implications of the process make it such an unsettling and memorable film in spite of its flaws.

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Image Via A24

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The prospects of a sequel always seemed dim from the get-go though. The film was capped with a bittersweet ending that earned Wallace a bit of peace in his new life. Beyond that, it's hard to see a commercial demand for the film given the original's track record. Then again, Smith said himself that commercial success was never the main goal of Tusk in the first place, but rather making something he wanted to make. Moreover, during a Twitch stream in 2020, he revealed that he did have a possible way to make Tusk 2 work with its story:

There’s a version of Tusk 2 that you do where… you cut to the present, and somebody else gets sucked into the spider’s web. The house, you hear stories, and when you get to the house, the new Howard Howe is Wallace, who has gotten out of the walrus trappings and stuff and is obviously disturbed by his entire ordeal and is now doing it to others. So there’s a way to do Tusk 2 where Justin becomes Michael Parks’s character. Wallace becomes, sort of, the new Howard Howe. So yea, that’s possible. Tusk 2 is possible.

Outside of Tusk 2, Smith will next appear in theaters with the highly-anticipated Clerks III on September 13. We'll have more on his body horror sequel when and if he continues to pursue its creation. For now, check out an interview Collider did with the director exploring another of his beloved, non-horror films from the View Askewniverse, Mallrats.