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...