“Veronica Mars” could be making its long-awaited TV return.
Sources tell Variety that a revival of the series is currently in the works at Hulu with original series star Kristen Bell poised to return as the titular detective and original series creator Rob Thomas serving as writer. Warner Bros. Television, which produced the original series, would be the studio. Sources caution, however, that the deal for the series is not yet final. It is also unknown if any other original series stars besides Bell would return or what the plot of the series would be.
Among the matters complicating the deal is that Bell currently stars in the hit NBC comedy “The Good Place.” Should the “Veronica Mars” project move forward, it would need to shoot around her schedule for the latter show, meaning it would likely be a limited series consisting of eight to ten episodes.
Both Hulu and Warner Bros. TV declined to comment.
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The original series ran on UPN (and then The CW) for three seasons and just over 60 episodes between 2004 and 2007. Bell starred as Veronica, who lived in the fictional California town of Neptune. She worked part-time for her father Keith, who was once Neptune’s sheriff but was forced out of office and subsequently opened his own private detective agency. In each episode, she would work on cases around Neptune while also trying to solve larger crimes, like the murder of her best friend, Lilly Kane.
In addition to Bell, the show starred Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni, Percy Daggs III, Francis Capra, Ryan Hansen, Teddy Dunn, Michael Muhney, and Tina Majorino. Amanda Seyfried also appeared in multiple episodes as Lilly.
The series was never a ratings breakout but received strong critical acclaim and developed a cult following after its cancellation, with both Thomas and Bell often talking of continuing the show. In 2013, Thomas and Bell announced they were launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund a feature film continuation of the series. The campaign raised nearly $6 million by the time it concluded, well above its initial $2 million goal. The film was released in 2014.
Thomas and Jennifer Graham have also written two novels based on the series, titled “Veronica Mars: Mrs. Kiss and Tell” and “Veronica Mars: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line.” Thomas also created the CW Seed web series “Play It Again, Dick,” in which Hansen played a fictionalized version of himself trying to convince his former cast mates to get onboard with a new spinoff series centered on his character, Dick Casablancas.
