Before the dawn of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, franchise films used to be made in a far more improvised fashion. Nowadays, we’re used to studios and filmmakers having a several-year plan in place for an interlocking series of films and their respective franchises, and while this system can create some very rewarding emotional and narrative payoffs, it doesn’t allow for the freedom of spontaneity as much. With this freedom, filmmakers were able to follow their muse to places they previously had never thought of going to, and it’s not just characters or moments that were thought up on the fly; in some cases, an entire film came into existence based on a chance encounter.

That’s exactly what happened to Kevin Smith during his primary years making films set in his View Askewniverse, named after the View Askew production company he created when he began making movies. Initially, these films were mostly interconnected in a more Easter Egg fashion, with the only primary connective tissue being the appearance of Smith’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meets Laurel and Hardy (with a dash of Cheech and Chong) duo of Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith himself) in every movie. Eventually, Jay and Silent Bob began appearing in other films and television that weren’t made by Smith and weren’t expressly part of the View Askewniverse, although the presence of the characters obviously opened the door for loose inclusion.

One of these films was Wes Craven’s “Scream 3,” with the comedic duo being included in a cameo as part of that franchise’s continued embrace of the meta-blurring of lines between real and reel life. It was during the shooting of this cameo that Smith had a bit of an epiphany regarding his films, leading to his writing and directing the fifth View Askew movie, “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” which itself brought the Askewniverse into a more cohesive whole.

The appearance of Jay and Silent Bob in “Scream 3” wasn’t part of any master plan by either Smith, Craven, or anyone else involved with the film. It just so happened that both Smith and “Scream” were under the Miramax/Dimension Films banner, and according to a recent interview with Smith for Entertainment Weekly, it was the folks at the studio who thought up the cameo:

“So, we were asked by the folks at Miramax, ‘Hey man, do you want to pop up in the next “Scream” movie as Jay and Silent Bob?’ And they were like, ‘Wes is into it,’ meaning Craven.”

Upon shooting the cameo scene, in which Jay and Silent Bob bump into Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) while taking a tour of the studio lot where “Stab 3” is being filmed, Smith couldn’t help but marvel at how novel his characters looked amongst the soundstages. As he recalled:

“And you’ve got to remember most of the movies I made, all the movies I made, none of them were on a lot. So as we walked around the sound stages I was like, ‘This would be f—ing dope man — make a whole movie like on a sound stage … Jay and Silent Bob just bumming around and stuff.’ That’s where ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’ came from.”

While the whole movie of “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” is not set in and around soundstages, Smith did make sure to write a lengthy setpiece for the film in which the duo breaks onto the Miramax lot, thus achieving the vision he had on the “Scream 3” set.

The majority of cameos seen in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” are made up of prior View Askewniverse characters and the actors who play them — Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Alanis Morissette amongst them — or by geek and comedy culture heroes of Smith’s, like Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill from “Star Wars,” and stand-up legend George Carlin. So although Wes Craven’s appearance in the film may seem a little out of place on paper, it makes sense when one realizes that this was Smith’s way of paying back the director for the indirect inspiration he provided. In true meta fashion, Craven turns up as himself, directing “Scream 4” (a full decade before he actually made “Scream 4”) in which the orangutan known as Suzanne is somehow playing Ghostface. Smith made sure to shout out the homage in his interview:

“That’s why Wes Craven is in ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.’ I paid him back.”

As Smith goes on to say, all of this means that Jay and Silent Bob aren’t just part of the View Askewniverse, but that they’re also part of the “Scream” franchise, as well as the “Degrassi” series (appearing in “Degrassi: The Next Generation”) and the DC comics TV Arrowverse, turning up as security guards in an episode of “The Flash.” If Kevin Smith wasn’t open to spontaneity, then neither he nor his creations could’ve flourished as much as they have. While the latest appearances of the lovable duo have been relegated to “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” and “Clerks III,” keep your eyes peeled; the doors are open for Jay and Silent Bob to strike just about anywhere next.