VERONICA MARS: Rob Thomas on Season 4’s Big Gambles

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the entire fourth season of VERONICA MARS. If you have not watched it—or been spoiled about what went down—please do that before you read this post.]

VERONICA MARS pulled off one of its biggest twists yet in the final moments of its fourth season as Logan (Jason Dohring) was killed off…mere hours after he married his off-on love Veronica (Kristen Bell).

Spoilers about the death appeared on social media almost immediately, and heartbroken fans are still struggling to come to terms with the loss. “If they want to see more of VERONICA MARS, I think this is the right decision,” creator Rob Thomas explains in the interview below. “I think there are better odds for more seasons of VERONICA MARS with Veronica as a single woman. I hope they get on board; I know there’s a chance they won’t.”

Here Thomas discusses why he felt Logan needed to die, Keith’s health issues, spoilers, and more…

You’ve mentioned that you viewed Logan’s death as a way to cut off the arm to save the life [of the show]. What conversations were there in the writers room about killing him off versus breaking them up, especially given how primed the duo seemed for a split in season 4?
This was decided before there ever was a writers’ room. This is how I pitched the series. There was never a discussion of, “Instead of killing Logan, let’s think up some other way.” It’s that I want to play Veronica as a single woman, the star of the noir detective show moving forward. Having them break up…am I still playing her high school romance as a present day part of the series? [There might be the question of] did Logan call? I wasn’t interested in that.

Fan service can be a dangerous thing, but the franchise is in a unique position because of the Kickstarter that led to the 2014 film. Given that, respectfully, what do you think you owe those fans at this point?
I probably wouldn’t have killed Logan in a fan-funded movie. The thing I’ll tell them is if they want to see more of VERONICA MARS, I think this is the right decision. I think it would have been diminishing returns if we kept trying to play her high school boyfriend in this detective series. I think there are better odds for more seasons of VERONICA MARS with Veronica as a single woman. I hope they get on board; I know there’s a chance they won’t. It’s a risk I was willing to take.

You had previously mentioned that you were concerned about the big reveals of the season being out there due to everyone watching at different paces. How did you handle having it released a week early, in the middle of Comic-Con—and then people spoiling the end—after guarding these twists for so long?
The funny thing is, you have your head into the work so much. I’ve never been that dialed into marketing. I trust those professionals to do what they do. I clearly know nothing about marketing; my whole career is shows on the bubble. I usually just nod and go, “Okay.” It probably wasn’t until a week before Comic-Con where I was like, “Wait a minute, everyone is going to know the ending to the show.” And I started growing concerned for that one reason they were going to read headlines or Twitter posts and have the show spoiled for them.

It does seem like the answer to whodunnit, which was more forefront in my mind in terms of spoiling, you never see headlines about that. It’s just Logan’s death.

Keith (Enrico Colantoni) was in pretty bad shape this season, both physically and with apparent dementia. What was the balance you wanted to strike in respectfully portraying those complications, while ultimately making it a red herring?
What Keith is going through stemmed from both my own medical travails and my dad’s. The pill case Keith uses and the number of pills Keith takes, that’s mine. Keith was going through my daily routine on that front. My dad has had multiple hip replacements and is hobbling around. That stems from that.

The voice over this year, for the first time ever, was in the past tense instead of present tense. In that bit of voice over, I wanted to create a sense of something bad was going down. The first thing she says is, “I wouldn’t have taken this case if I knew what I knew.” And so it helped us, not just that, ooh, something bad is going to happen to Keith, but when he goes to disarm that bomb, I want the fans dreading that. You want to up the tension as much as you can. I wanted fans to think, uh oh, she’s going to cheat on Logan with Leo. I wanted them to think what is the other shoe that is going to drop?

What did you think of VERONICA MARS season 4?

RELATED:

• VERONICA MARS Season 4 Finale: Let’s Talk About Those Big Moves
• VERONICA MARS: Hulu Drops Entire Season a Week Early
• VERONICA MARS: Enrico Colantoni Previews the Darker Hulu Revival
• VERONICA MARS Season 4 Photos
• Hulu Releases Full VERONICA MARS Season 4 Trailer
• VERONICA MARS at ATX: Live-Blog
• VERONICA MARS: Hulu Releases New Teaser
• VERONICA MARS: Hulu Officially Orders Revival Series, Lands Streaming Rights of the Original Series
• VERONICA MARS at PaleyFest 2014: The Cast Tease Where Their Characters Are and the Journey to Make the Movie

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