Veronica Mars – From Helios to Hollywood

Good afternoon, Marshmallows!

Almost two years ago, I finally got around to watching Veronica Mars and wrote about it here on the blog. If you’ve been following the news since, we got a wonderful surprise back in August. VM creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell were in talks for a revival of the hit noir series with streaming juggernaut Hulu. I don’t know about you guys, but I instantly went into full fandom freak out mode but details were scant. Nothing was confirmed and at that point, the only two names tied to the project were Thomas and Bell. I love KB as much as the next Marshmallow, but VM’s greatness came from the chemistry across the entire cast, so until we knew more, I tried not to get my hopes up.

Since the August story, the project has acquired an official greenlight from the suits at Hulu, original cast members have begun signing on, and we have a start date (sort of).

Here is what we know so far…

The series will run in 2019.

Although they’ve stated that it will begin in 2019, that could be December 2019. They have yet to release the month. However, Kristen Bell did confirm that production begins in November 2018.

In addition to the revival, Hulu has acquired the streaming rights for seasons 1-3 and the 2014 movie.

For those who like to binge watch, you’ll be able to consume the entire VM world before you start on the new revival series. Word is, they won’t be available on the streaming service until Summer 2019, which also hints at the timing for the release of the revival.

The revival will be comprised of eight hour-long episodes following a single story arc.

The original show’s basic structure followed one or two cases over the course of each season with each weekly episode also following its own arc or case. The revival will be eight episodes that make up one large story arc.

Rob Thomas told E! News, “If we get to do it again…I think the way to make it survive is to—If the movie was kind of a love letter to the fans, anything that comes from now on, I think, is going to be about the kickass mystery…If we get to do it again, that’s what I want to deliver. I want to make Veronica the first name in female detectives. I have no designs on supplanting Sherlock Holmes, but I would really love Veronica Mars to be—when I think female detectives, that’s who I think of.”

The tone of the show will be darker and more grown up.

Being housed on Hulu, the revival will have more freedoms as far as explicit content goes. As a subscription-based streaming service, Hulu is not bound by network rules. Swearing, sexual content, and violence have the potential of being kicked up a notch….or twelve.

We have a synopsis of sorts.

Spring breakers are getting murdered in Neptune, thereby decimating the seaside town’s lifeblood tourist industry. After Mars Investigations is hired by the parents of one of the victims to find their son’s killer, Veronica is drawn into an epic eight-episode mystery that pits the enclave’s wealthy elites, who would rather put an end to the month-long bacchanalia, against a working class that relies on the cash influx that comes with being the West Coast’s answer to Daytona Beach.

A lot of the original cast is coming back!

CONFIRMED
Kristen Bell playing Veronica Mars
Percy Daggs III playing Wallace Fennell
Enrico Colantoni playing Keith Mars (Veronica’s father)
Jason Dohring playing Logan Echolls
Francis Capra playing Eli “Weevil” Navarro
Ryan Hansen playing Dick Casablancas
David Starzyk playing Richard Casablancas (Dick’s father)

That’s it for now, Marshmallows. We will keep you all apprised of the details as they are confirmed. Here’s hoping for a record-breaking production schedule so we can watch soon!

Yep, I did it. I binge watched Veronica Mars. But this time, I had what some would refer to as a valid reason.

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Some of you know that my day job is running my own PR company for authors. One of the clients I’m a PA for, Amber Lynn Natusch, has a new YA Crime Noir series coming out with Tor Teen in 2018. In discussing her new marketing strategy (all her previous work is adult, not YA), she suggested collecting Veronica Mars memes for sharing as her series is in a similar vein. She felt that reaching out to VM fans would be a good jumping point for building her new reader audience. Since I’d never seen VM, I confessed that the memes would be kind of lost on me as the references are nothing I would understand. We ended up settling on a plan for me to pull any VM memes I could find, and Amber would have to go through the file and pick out the good ones that VM fans would appreciate.

This wasn’t the first time Amber mentioned VM to me. She has been telling me for a while now that I would love it and should totally watch it. Her exact words were “Veronica Mars is my spirit animal.” Until chatting with Amber, I had no clue it was a “normal” show (I watch a lot of paranormal/supernatural scifi). I had no idea that it was about a teenage detective. And while we’re being honest, I wasn’t 100% sure I’d even like it.

Rather than blindly pulling memes for Amber to later sift through, I decided to finally give it a try. I figured it would be better for me to experience the show and, in a way, get to know the audience I was going to be trying to locate for her in the next year and a half.

After watching the series, the 12-minute short, and the movie, I totally get it. The main character isn’t perfect. She’s good at what she does, but like all teenage girls, she doesn’t always come out on top. She’s witty but not highbrow.

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Pure snark and sass.

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She lives surrounded by the height of California luxury, but she’s also content with her own lifestyle and doesn’t exactly spend her time pining for a different destiny. Despite the glamorous setting of the story, Veronica is easy for the audience to relate to from episode one….

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