Although he had to pass on the Van Lowe role, Paul Rudd ended up appearing as a washed-up rock star in season three.

Etheridge: We were inspired by Withnail and I, which is one of our favorite movies.

Lowell: Paul was so easy and mellow. I had a million questions for him about Wet Hot American Summer, and he answered all of them.

Ruggiero: Rob’s assistant, Alex, had to buy Paris Hilton’s Chihuahua french fries, because the Chihuahua ate McDonald’s french fries. Me, miss animal lover, was like, is that all she’s feeding that dog, fucking fries?

Ratings issues consistently placed the series on the bubble for cancellation—until Marshmallows took matters into their own hands, flooding network offices with Mars Bars one year and an airplane banner another. They even sent dollar bills with “Veronica Mars is smarter than me” written on them, another reference to a joke from the show.

Gwartz: We had such a fervent fan base so devoted to this character and show that they took it upon themselves to lead their own movement to advocate for renewal.

Thomas: I don’t know what would have happened had the fans not supported us, but I’m grateful.

Nevertheless, the show got canceled after its third season. Thomas tried to revive it with a backdoor pilot that placed Veronica in the FBI, under the tutelage of a character played by Walton Goggins. It didn’t get a greenlight.

Ruggiero: We had shitloads of fun writing it. I remember writing at an airport in Costa Rica between flights. I was sitting next to a goat, on my suitcase.

Thomas: it was a Hail Mary. The network had asked me about writing a show about a young FBI agent. And I said, how about taking Veronica five years ahead? We streamed it for the network, and they flipped over it. We had two weeks of feeling good. Then we got a call saying people didn’t like that plan, and it wasn’t being picked up.

But the Marshmallows never gave up. Six years after cancellation, Thomas launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $2 million to fund a Veronica Mars follow-up movie. In just days, it raised $5 million.

Thomas: An Austin musician friend of mine used Kickstarter to fund a recording project. That was the first I’d ever heard of it. I started doing the back-of-the-cocktail napkin math and thought, unless it’s been the same 10 fans asking for a movie the last six years, we could do this.

Ruggiero: When he was first starting doing it, I was really supportive, but there was this part of me that was like, “Oh My God, what’s going to happen? Please, people, donate.”

Thomas: The potential for humiliation felt so high. And then we hit 1 million in the first four, five hours. All I could do was sit there and watch the money pour in.

Dohring: The phone started ringing off the hook from my parents and wife’s parents and Kristen, saying what was going on…. All the people that donated for it were wonderful. They said they were little people, but wanted to help out and contribute. “Fuck the man.” And we were like, “Okay.”

Majorino: I was working on Grey’s Anatomy, running back to where the grips were because they were checking on the Kickstarter for me in between takes. Watching the numbers go up…. It made making the movie so important to me. It was actually for the fans.

Thomas: It was built as a dessert for them. Looking at my Twitter feed, there were a lot of things our fans were hoping to see, and I tried to give it to them.