'Dogma' director says Catholic faith fueled first film, but disbelief will shape sequel
Kevin Smith, creator of the 1999 cult classic film "Dogma," said the movie was written by a Catholic who believed every word of it, but its sequel will come from a man who has left his religion behind.
Despite backlash from Christian groups at the time of the movie's release, the "Dogma" director maintains his film is "not just pro-faith, but pro-Catholic." Now, nearly three decades later, Smith is preparing a follow-up shaped by a very different worldview.
"In doing a 'Dogma' sequel, I've encountered a wrinkle that didn't exist when I wrote and directed 'Dogma,'" Smith told Fox News Digital in an interview. "'Dogma' is a movie that's written and directed by somebody that believes in everything that you see on that screen."
"The old man who's writing, directing the follow-up, he doesn't have that same faith anymore," Smith said, referring to himself in the present day. "I don't carry that cross."
"Dogma" is a theological comedy following a pair of fallen angels, played by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, trying to make their way back into heaven. They are opposed by a distant blood relative of Jesus Christ and the angel Metatron, played by Linda Fiorentino and Alan Rickman, respectively.
The star-studded cast also includes Salma Hayek, Chris Rock and George Carlin, among many others.
Smith shared that, at the time of the film's release, he worried controversy surrounding it might lead audiences to expect a satire in the vein of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." But "Dogma," he said, is "reverent."
"It upholds everything, all the tenets of the Catholic faith," Smith said, adding that while the movie might cast a "hairy eyeball toward the Catholic Church, the fundamental organization," he surmised most of the movie's protesters hadn't actually watched it.
Smith said he still holds deep respect for religious people, adding that his late mother was a believer to the end.
"I wish I could be one of those cats again. Life was so much easier when I had faith," he said.
The filmmaker shared that this February would mark three years since his stay at Sierra Tucson, a residential mental health treatment center in Arizona. Looking back, Smith said losing his religion left him without the sense of safety he once relied on during difficult periods.
"I honestly feel like I probably wouldn't have wound up in an institution if I still had my faith... you got no issues when you got faith, man. You will always be protected."
"Those of us that don't practice a faith, don't have a faith, feel like we are alone. And that's very easy to break when the weight of the world is on your shoulders," he added.
When asked what changed between "Dogma" and its sequel, Smith said simply, "27 years and life."
He couldn't pinpoint any particular event that caused him to break with religion, but cited two moments that were influential.
One moment came during his long-running podcast, "SModcast," which he co-hosted with friend and fellow filmmaker Scott Mosier. During an episode discussing religion, Mosier, who Smith described as agnostic or "borderline atheist," challenged the idea of an afterlife.
Mosier suggested Smith's big ego prevented him from imagining a world that would go on without him. He compared human consciousness to data stored on a hard drive.
"And he goes, 'Your laptop has a lot of information on it. Tons of data... What happens when it spins out? Where does that information go?' The moment I started thinking of myself as a hard drive, it was harder to think of myself as a child of light," Smith said.
Another impactful realization came when he noticed a Buddhist wall hanging in his own home that he had passed countless times before. It read, "May you realize your divinity in this lifetime."
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Smith interpreted the message as a call to individual responsibility rather than surrendering control to a higher power.
"You don't need to placate yourself the way you did as a kid. It's important to remember that you are in charge. Why do you keep handing over the wheel to somebody that isn't really there?" he told Fox News Digital, clarifying that even for Christians, "Jesus isn't a physical manifestation at this point, not until he returns."
"I felt like I was being irresponsible with my life. I was turning it all over to a ghost — a Holy Ghost, but a ghost nonetheless."
That shift in belief, Smith said, would define the forthcoming sequel.
"That's the prism I'm gonna be writing a ‘Dogma’ follow-up through," said Smith. "This time around it'll be a little bit different, fed through a different ethos altogether."
The director acknowledged that, after everything, he could still be wrong about faith. But he said he feels he has lived a moral life and treated others well.
"We Catholics, we built insurance for ourselves. So there's always purgatory."