'Veronica Mars' Could Be Coming Back (Again)

I know you're still hotly anticipating the sequel to the Veronica Mars movie, but it looks like the additional movies of the former-teen super sleuth may come in a different format. In a Facebook Live Q&A with Rob Thomas, the series creator announced that Veronica Mars might get a six-episode mini-series follow-up instead. The team is currently playing around with the idea, but apparently it's "complicated" by one teensy tiny little thing: Kristen Bell's busy schedule, and whether she'd be down for another round of mystery solving.

According to Thomas:

"Her show The Good Place on NBC looks like it’s going to be on the air for a while and generally networks have really strict hold on the stars of their shows. Usually, they let them do one guest starring role on another show, so asking permission from NBC for Kristen to go do six episodes of a Veronica Mars mini-series would be a tough ask. We’ll ask it soon, but we don’t know what the answer will be."

Naturally it would be a little difficult to have Veronica Mars without, well Veronica Mars. But that isn't the only reason it may be precarious to pursue another Veronica Mars revival.

I mean, don't get me wrong: Veronica Mars is one of those unappreciated-at-the-time, gone-too-soon shows that has really shown it's worth in the past five years. Storywise, it's clear that the seedy underbelly of Neptune hasn't gotten any less seedier. The Veronica Mars film certainly confirmed that there's always a fresh murder mystery right around the corner, and that's keeping our girl stationed at Mars Investigations. She's ready for round two.

But could this be done successfully in that particular format? Generally, I trust Thomas to tackle short-term storytelling; he nailed it with the metaVM semi-spin-off Play It Again, Dick. But that focused on humor, whereas Veronica Mars is a noir first, a CW (teen) drama second, and a barrel of delightful snark third. Condensing it could mean a weird tonal shift if not done properly. But if anyone could, who better than the original creator?

Drama and schedule logistics aside, I can cop that making one more trip to Neptune with Thomas and Bell would probably be just peachy keen, whatever the format. Here's hoping that they can get the timing right.