VERONICA MARS at ATX: Live-Blog

With VERONICA MARS returning for an eight-episode limited run new this July, series creator Rob Thomas and co-stars Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, and Percy Daggs III hit up the ATX TV Festival to promote the installments.

10:34 AM CT: We’re starting off with a clip of the new season. Veronica and Keith are bantering in the office. No spoilers, but they’re adorable and V is having fun making fun of her father’s age. There’s also a clip of Logan returning from work, and Veronica having a bit of fun with girls who are admiring him.

10:42 AM: Why is now the right time? “Because they let us,” Thomas jokes. He says he and Kristen Bell had been in touch since the movie, and they were intrigued by the idea of doing a mini-series with one big case appealed to the duo.

10:43 AM: The group has kept in touch over the years, they confirm. “By the grace of Rob,” Dohring says.

“And Twitter,” Colantoni adds.

10:44 AM: “That scene with you and Kristen we showed, we shot in day 2 of the mini-series,” Thomas says. He notes they had so much fun rebuilding the Mars Investigation set. The team found the original props. “Seeing Kristen and Enrinco in the Mars Investigation set…as a writer, the joy I felt in that moment is why I do this. It’s so much fun to see talented people enjoying your words…it felt like home.”

10:46 AM: Thomas sent Daggs a two paragraph synopsis of what he needed to know about what his character had been up to. He agrees it felt like home being back.

10:47 AM: “He’s very put together and helping Veronica through some things,” Dohring says.

10:48 AM: “When I was conceiving of the idea, it happened to be when the bomb scares were going through Austin,” Thomas says. “I don’t think I’m giving anything away to say there will be bombs in Neptune in spring break.” He also teases there’s a crossroads about “what kind of life Veronica wants to live.”

10:50 AM: Thomas says he pitched Hulu on an adult series. “The word ‘f–k’ appeared 18 times in the original script,” he says of the premiere. But Hulu asked for them to tone it down from TV-MA to TV-14, because the original series will be streaming and they want younger fans to be able to continue and watch the original series. To get around it a bit, they wrote in a gag where Keith and Veronica had a competition about who can go the longest without dropping an f-bomb.

10:53 AM: “You write a mystery, as a fan, I’d love to get all eight at a time,” Thomas says of the binge. “My concern is you write a mystery and not everyone watches it all on day one. The possibility of the big reveals being out in the ether, that scares me a little.”

10:55 AM: “I keep waiting for residual checks,” Thomas jokes of Ryan Hansen’s love of the show and his post-VM roles. Dick becomes “King of Neptune Spring Break,” Thomas teases.

10:58 AM: “You get excited about new people coming in,” Daggs says. He’s thankful the team keeps bringing in great people for them to work with.

Thomas says they had dream casting for a number of people for the new season, and they got all of their top picks. Plus, “there are going to be a number of fun people who are going to drop in on the show,” Thomas says. Veronica takes a trip to Chino prison and encounters a number of familiar faces, including Ryan Devlin. Max Greenfield returns for “multiple” episodes, however Chris Lowell’s Piz doesn’t return.

11:01 AM: “You get people coming up to you and saying how it changed their lives,” Daggs says of VM fans.

11:03 AM: “To be self-possessed, to be self-confident, that is the super power,” Thomas says. “She doesn’t kill vampire or kick ass like ALIAS. She’s just able to tell people to f–k off. That’s what I think people responded to.”

But Thomas says, the question is if it’s still important. Veronica is now 34-35, so was the magic of the show her being that self-aware that young.

11:05 AM: Originally, when Thomas was developing an early version of VERONICA MARS—when it was still a book—the story was supposed to be about a young man. But as it got further into the process, he realized it was much more poignant to be about a woman.

“I was raised by kickass women,” Daggs says. “Young girls need to see their strength and see their power.”

“To me, the show was always about the responsibility of a dad, and …it was Keith’s responsibility to make sure she was the best Veronica Mars possible,” Colantoni adds.

11:10 AM: Dohring admits he likes to play the bad guy, but there’s always been a very thin line Logan walks. Every time he thinks Logan can’t be redeemed, he does something like save someone.

11:11 AM: Colantoni credits Dohring’s work. He rewatched a season 1 episode and was blown away by the quiet work he did. ‘I want to work more with Jason,” Colantoni says. “This past season has been one of the joys about not hiding my enthusiasm for Jason.”

11:12 AM: “I love that feeling,” Thomas says of former guest stars blowing up huge post-series, like Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Chastain. “When I saw THOR: RAGNAROK, I was like, ‘Holy s—, look at her!'”

11:14 AM: What does Colantoni get most recolonized for? PERSON OF INTEREST is the big thing on the east coast, but he notes there’s something special with VM fans.

11:16 AM: “I owe this man a huge amount of gratitude,” Colantoni says of working with Thomas on IZOMBIE. He jokes he guest starred on the show because he was allowed to direct on The CW series.

11:17 AM: Yes, Thomas is open to reviving VM again with another mini-series. But he jokes that by saying that, it might give away that Veronica survives this go-round.

11:18 AM: Fan Q time! First one is what their favorite moment or line of dialogue. Dohring says Veronica breaking down in season 1 when she gets upset and tells Keith he can find anyone. Daggs cites singing “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.”

Thomas points to the pilot when Veronica wakes up in the bed and picks up her underwear. “I feel like a lot of actors can cry,” Thomas says. “It’s the ‘I am turning into stone while crying’…and she does it take after take. It was in that moment I was like, ‘Oh, God, we can be good.'”

11:24 AM: How does it feel to have the show debuting in a social media age. “I’m so nervous about it,” Thomas says. “There are big turns, there are big reveals…my hope is all the hardcore Marshmallows watch it on day one.”

Thomas notes he misses Television Without Pity and criticism beyond 280 characters. And with the binge drop, there can’t be any adjusting the series to what the fans are reacting to and what they’re not.

11:27 AM: How is the music chosen? Thomas jokes the music he learned about while working on the series “kept him young.” He credits the editors, who are the first ones to place music in the show. When he wrote the original VERONICA MARS pilot, he was listening to the band Air. He jokes it’s a fear he has that he’s going to be “Classic Rock” Rob.

11:30 AM: How has it been for the actors to work together more? “It’s the best thing,” Daggs says. “Rico, when we got to set…he was like, it’s our scene today!” And things are more fun for Daggs and Dohring now, because things are smoother with their characters: “We like each other now!”

11:34 AM: “I could barely retain consciousness,” Thomas says of the day the Kickstarter opening. He invited fans to come to his friend’s bar for the final day of the Kickstarter, and he told his friend there might be 40 people. He thinks about 700 showed up.

Thomas points to the Kickstarter backers who were extras in the film as a special moment, because it was clear how much they loved the experience. He says actors came in on their day off to say hi to the backers.

11:37 AM: The first three seasons are available on Hulu on July 1st. And that’s a wrap!

VERONICA MARS, Season Premiere, Friday, July 26, Hulu

RELATED:

• VERONICA MARS: Hulu Releases New Teaser
• VERONICA MARS: Hulu Sets July Premiere
• 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
• PaleyFest 2014: VERONICA MARS Panel Photos

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