Of all the canceled cult-favorite TV shows to get another chance in the streaming era, it's not entirely surprising that Veronica Mars is one of the lucky ones. During its initial run from 2004 to 2007, the critically adored drama—about a high school outcast (Kristen Bell) who moonlights as a detective for her father's P.I. agency after her best friend is murdered—touched on so many pop-culture trends that have been in vogue in the past few years. It aired the murderous dirty laundry of tech millionaires long before shows like Big Little Lies; it had a complicated, sometimes-messy heroine before thinkpieces about them flooded the internet; and its irreverent, female-driven noir preceded the true-crime podcast boom and programs like My Favorite Murder.

But the show, which returned for its fourth season on Hulu earlier this month in a surprise early release, owes plenty to the persistence of its creator Rob Thomas, who has never given up on the fictional world of Neptune, Calif., despite how many times the real world has suggested he move on. After the series' initial cancelation, he tried to revamp the series as an FBI drama (which never made it to air) and a feature-length movie (which Warner Bros. rejected and reportedly said there was "no enthusiasm for"). But he still kept going: In 2013, Thomas launched a groundbreaking Kickstarter campaign for a Veronica Mars film that raised more than $5 million and brought a grown-up Veronica to the big screen the following year. But while he and Bell hoped at the time that the project would lead to another season somewhere, Thomas—who’s also behind Party Down and iZombie—didn't wait around: He co-authored two Veronica Mars novels featuring unused story ideas and also launched a spin-off web series about a Veronica Mars cast member who... can't let go of the show and wants to launch a spin-off. It's all in the service, Thomas says, of creating a franchise that will live on for decades to come: "In my perfect world, I would love to replace Nancy Drew."

A few days after the dust had settled from the show's Comic-Con drop—and from a literally explosive plot twist—Thomas hopped on the phone to talk about his Veronica Mars bucket list, turning down Friday Night Lights and what kept his faith in the show alive all these years.

GQ: There were so many times when people told you Veronica Mars was done. How did you know it wasn’t?

Rob Thomas: It was a question that I got in every interview that I did. No matter what I was talking about, no matter what other show I might have been promoting, it always came back to Veronica Mars. Certainly I had consistently heard from fans asking about whether there would be any other iteration of the show. So I felt like there was a passion there, and I was feeling really good about it until about an hour before we launched the Kickstarter. Then I suddenly got racked by doubts: What if there aren't fans out there? What if I've just heard from the same 12 people over the last six years, and we're going to fall on our face and look really dumb asking for $2 million?