‘Veronica Mars’: At Comic-Con, Hulu announces revival is now streaming

True fans of “Veronica Mars” already knew that the high-school noir — which first aired from 2004 to 2007 — was being revived by Hulu. But those in attendance at the show’s Ballroom 20 panel at Comic-Con were the first to find out that the series is no longer set to premiere July 26, as previously announced.

The new date? July 19. As in that day As in, immediately.

The production of a fourth season of “Veronica Mars” no longer seems like a stretch in the current phase of remakes, reboots and continuations, but the series is something of a fan-support pioneer: In 2014, a Kickstarter campaign attracted 91,585 backers pledging $5,702,153 in total toward a “Veronica Mars” movie. The film ended up making less at the box office than the money that was pledged, but at the time the campaign broke numerous Kickstarter records: fastest project to reach $1 million; fastest project to reach $2 million; all-time highest-funded project in film category; and third-highest funded project in Kickstarter history.

The panel included Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, Ryan Hansen, Francis Capra, Percy Daggs III, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, executive producer Diane Ruggiero-Wright and creator/executive producer Rob Thomas.

During the panel, Bell revealed that she had to make a tough decision on whether to come back to the show and miss six months of bedtimes for her little girls. Ultimately, though, that was the reason she did it: to have the example of a strong woman like Veronica Mars out there for kids like her daughters to emulate. It also helped that there’s now a character on the show where she can transfer “all of my emotions about wanting to keep my daughters safe.”

A question from the audience brought up the old marry/sex/kill scenario for Veronica. Bell and Ruggiero-Wright collaborated to answer that the character, bringing up past loves, would choose to marry Piz, have sex with Leo and kill Duncan.

Capra divulged that his love for Bell herself translated on the show as it looked like his character had a crush on hers. But, he says, “Of course he did! She got him out of jail so many times.” He also mentioned that no one got him out of jail personally, and especially no one that looked like Bell.

Thomas sat down with his now-13-year-old daughter and watched the entire run. She said that the character of Keith, Veronica’s dad, “said things just like you say to me!”

Another moment from Thomas came when asked about music on the show. Being musically minded, he was happy to get Chrissie Hynde, whom he considers one of the greatest rock stars ever, to sing the theme song. It was also noted that music from Billie Eilish was also used during the season.

The announcement of the show’s revised streaming date was said to be done as a gift for Bell, whose birthday was Thursday.