Fans have famously waited long enough, and in just a matter of days Veronica Mars returns, with a sleek and updated major motion picture. Veronica Mars’ Jason Dohring, or Logan Echolls, sat down with us to discuss the film, and his fond memories of working on the groundbreaking show, which began ten years ago.
Firstly, he can’t get over the overwhelming fan support that led to the movie being made in the first place. “It exploded!” he says, referring to the fans who contributed to Mars writer and creator Rob Thomas’s pitch on Kickstarter to get the movie made. “90,000 people. It broke the Kickstarter record.”
Having waited this long is really a sweet sweet reward for both the fans as well as the actors on the show, Jason continues. “We didn’t know if we were gonna get the fourth season or not,” he recalls. “We had set the seeds of [the next season] in the late part of season 3 – it’s an open ended question that is dealt with in the movie.” And he assures us that some of what we’ve been waiting for will happen in the film. “Two or three scenes in there are going to be things that people want to see,” he teases. “They certainly deserve it after all the support – this is a love letter to them.” And we can’t wait to read it!
As for where Logan is headed in the film, it’s trouble as usual. “[The film] starts off with Veronica coming out of law school,” he states. “She gets a call from my character…his Katy Perry-style girlfriend has been murdered, and he is the prime suspect. He calls Veronica for help.” That’s about as much as he was able to share, and of course it leaves us wanting to know so much more. Are flames rekindled at all, after all this time? One must assume that the answer is at least maybe (or even probably).
And that’s part of what we love about Veronica – she can’t resist a bad boy. Logan is a lot more than meets the eye, and some of what you find underneath the surface is mighty unsavory. “Everybody likes to play a bad guy, myself included,” Jason says about playing villains. And about Logan in particular, he “didn’t know where Rob would take this character. But for my inspiration for Logan, I turned it up a little bit and went totally free and crazy!”
And what about the opportunity to return to work alongside a group of people with whom he wrapped this project back in 2007? “It was unbelievable. We’re all such good friends,” he says, “but to get together all at once – it was amazing!”
Look for lots of familiar faces when the film comes out, as well as some new ones. Jason only shares that there will be “lots of cameos,” and did a little namedropping (James Franco, among may others, was mentioned).
About the Veronica Mars experience as a whole, Jason is more than grateful. “You never know where it’s gonna go,” he says. “You end a show 7 years ago, and now we’re doing such a huge movie! This has been an ‘experience’ more than anything – an experience with friends, and an experience with fans – probably the most unique experience of my career.”
Veronica Mars opens nationwide March 14.