Fandom is a powerful thing.

I once watched eagerly for news as a fan of a certain cult-classic, Firefly, to see if news of a movie green-light would actually happen. My personal copy of the series traded so many hands, I didn’t see it for six months while I worked to recruit the fans who hadn’t seen it when it aired. I got that very shiny movie, and fandom got a legend about the power of fans.

Today, fans got another victory as even I thought the Veronica Mars movie was just a fan dream. it seemed so impossible that I didn’t actively think about it, until my BFF sent me a text to say that a Kickstarter campaign to fund the movie had reached 61% of a 2 million dollar goal. While I type this, the campaign has raised more that 2.26 million dollars in under 24 hours.

Holy heck.

I’m proud to say we contributed to the campaign, as I loved me my Veronica Mars and I want more of that smoldering snarkiness that is Logan Echolls. However, I’m fascinated by this from the perspective of how it can change entertainment. i have sometimes been a big fan of great shows that just didn’t hit the right ratings for advertisers. I adore HBO because there is no advertisers to cater to with ratings. I pay HBO a subscription, I watch what I like and HBO continues to develop what it’s subscribers want. They don’t care that I TiVo my shows and watch them later. For established actors or fanbases (I don’t think KBell and Rob Thomas could have pulled this off otherwise), this could be a legitimate way to give consumers the stories they want. I don’t need Veronica Mars to hit the big shiny screen. A limited run is okay with me, after all, I watched the original on a TV screen. The copy of the movie I’m getting with our donation still lets me watch it. If Felicia Day hadn’t had Geek and Sundry for The Guild, I imagine she would be able to use Kickstarter to fund a fan beloved series. What other actors might take a similar opportunity. Is it just me, or do you imagine that geek favorite Zachary Levi could pull something similar if he wanted to create a geek friendly web series?

And off I go, while internet rumors of Firefly being resurrected are bound to surface again.

Oh and 2.27 million for the girl detective in the time it took me to write this post.