TV

Ken Marino joins Veronica Mars revival — and everything else we know

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Updated on February 12, 2019 09:41AM EST

TCDVEMA EC032 — Photo: Everett Collection

Hulu’s revival of the critically-beloved drama Veronica Mars is sounding more and more like a good place for fans. The streaming service screened a teaser during its presentation Monday at the winter edition of the TV Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena. The brief clip, which they are not releasing, showed a noir-esque crime scene and included Veronica’s trademark voice-over.

Craig Erwich, Hulu’s senior VP of originals, told critics that he is very excited about the show’s return this summer. “Rob Thomas who is the steward of the franchise, has really threaded the needle,” said Erwich. “From what I’ve seen of the show—and I’ve read, and the scripts are excellent—it is very true to the character. It is very true to the world. It’s true to the tone of the show and what made people fall in love with the show, but it is definitely an update. She’s not a young girl anymore. You’ll see her dealing with contemporary issues in a contemporary world.”

Fan favorite Ken Marino also told TVGuide.com that he would likely be reprising his role as rival gumshoe Vinnie Van Lowe. While he joked that he could not “confirm or deny” the news, he noted that creator Rob Thomas had already replied “Yes” to a fan on Twitter who asked if Vinnie would be back. “So I think I can say I am in it,” said Marino, who was at the TCA press tour to promote his terrific new Comedy Central series The Other Two. “I hope I’m not getting myself in trouble, but he said it on Twitter so — if it’s on Twitter, it’s out there. I might be showing up — cannot confirm or deny.”

With Marino, apparently, hopping aboard the revival train, here’s what else we know about the new Veronica Mars so far:

• JK Simmons is also heading to Neptune. The Oscar-winning actor and Farmers Insurance pitch man has also signed on to play Clyde Prickett, an ex-con who works as a fixer for Big Dick Casablancas (David Starzyk), the richest real estate developer in the town of Neptune, California.

• Speaking of the Casablancas family.. A long time ago, they used to be… well, not friends, exactly, but two of the sassiest archenemies on the CW.

Ryan Hansen confirmed on social media that he will reprise his role as Dick Casablancas, the thorn in the side of Kristen Bell’s eponymous detective on Veronica Mars, for Hulu’s revival of the critically acclaimed series.

It will be the third time that Hansen, who currently stars in the YouTube Red series Ryan Hansen Solves Crime on Television, will be essaying the role of one of TV’s most oddly endearing douchebags. In addition to the Kickstarter-ed 2014 Veronica Mars feature film, Hansen had his own CW Seed spin-off, Play it Again, Dick, in which he played himself attempting to convince his Mars castmates to appear in a spin-off about his character. (Hansen has clearly never met a meta concept he could resist.)

• The limited series will consist of eight hourlong episodes.

• It will air sometime in 2019.

• In addition to Marino and Hansen, the series has locked in many of the original actors playing major characters, including, of course, Bell in the title role; Enrico Colantoni as her father, Keith; Percy Daggs as BFF Wallace; Francis Capra as (reformed?) biker gang member Weevil; and Jason Dohring as on/off boyfriend Logan Echolls.

• Bell recently told Jessica Shaw at EW Radio that the new season will be “a much darker world, it’s going to be a bigger world.”

• A description of the storyline certainly backs that up, as it details a season-long case concerning a spring break serial killer who is terrorizing sunny Neptune, California. Mars Investigations, run by Veronica and Keith, gets involved, and the fallout includes conflict between the affluent and working-class factions of the town.

• Fans and newbies will be able to catch up on the original series when Hulu begins streaming the first three seasons and the 2014 film in summer 2019.

• So you have plenty of time to wonder if Piz (Chris Lowell) — was he the right choice, after all? — will make a triumphant return.

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