Kirby Howell-Baptiste Joins Hulu’s Veronica Mars Revival

Deadline reports that Killing Eve actress Kirby Howell-Baptiste has signed on for a recurring role in Hulu’s forthcoming Veronica Mars revival. Kristen Bell is set to return as the titular character and is scheduled to have its debut next year in 2019.

Howell-Baptiste will portray the role of Nicole, who owns and operates the Neptune nightclub favored by spring breakers. Due to the mysterious deaths of many spring breakers, Veronica tries to investigate and begins to believe the killer is selecting his victims at the club.

The Veronica Mars revival has gotten a direct-to-series order for 8 one-hour episodes from Warner Bros. Television. As part of the deal, Hulu has also struck an agreement with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution for SVOD rights to all past episodes of the original Veronica Mars. Fans can stream seasons 1-3, as well as the 2014 feature film, beginning in summer 2019. The purpose of the shorter season is to work around Bell’s schedule on her hit NBC comedy The Good Place.

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Spring breakers are getting murdered in Neptune, thereby decimating the seaside town’s lifeblood tourist industry. After Mars Investigations is hired by the parents of one of the victims to find their son’s killer, Veronica is drawn into an epic eight-episode mystery that pits the enclave’s wealthy elites, who would rather put an end to the month-long bacchanalia, against a working class that relies on the cash influx that comes with being the West Coast’s answer to Daytona Beach.

Kristen Bell will both star and executive produce, with creator Rob Thomas, Diane Ruggiero-Wright and Dan Etheridge also executive producing. Thomas will also pen the first episode.

Jason Dohring (iZombie), Francis Capra (The Strain), Percy Daggs III (The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy) and David Starzyk (Criminal Minds) are all set to return for the revival series.

Veronica Mars originally aired in 2004 on UPN, a forerunner of The CW, and it featured Bell as a teenager turned private detective. Veronica’s initial case involved solving her best friend’s murder. However, she also took on an assortment of smaller cases against the backdrop of the larger story. Veronica Mars ran for three seasons and 60 episodes before it was canceled. In 2013, Thomas, Bell, and most of the series original cast put their support behind a Kickstarter campaign to fund a Veronica Mars movie. It was subsequently released in 2014, with Bell portraying Veronica as she returned to Neptune and resumed her career as a private investigator.

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