Veronica Mars didn’t hold back with season 4. The new season of the beloved show dropped a week early on July 20 and the finale featured the show’s most shocking moment yet: the death of Logan Echolls. Logan was killed in a car bomb explosion right in front of Veronica after their wedding. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with creator Rob Thomas about killing Logan off and why it was necessary. Rob said that he had always envisioned Logan’s death as the endgame for his character.
“Before Jason [Dohring] ever signed aboard, I called him and it was a hard call. It was as hard as breaking up with a serious girlfriend. It was rough. Jason handled it with aplomb. I mean, understandably, he wasn’t happy about the news, but he also sort of understood why I felt like we needed to do it. And the reason for that is that it’s something Kristen [Bell] and I have talked about. Moving forward, the thought is that we need to be more of a straight detective show, that if we’re going to survive, we’re going to be like a Sherlock or something where we get to pop in from time to time and do a big mystery case.”
He continued: “If we tried to keep sort of the high school soap opera, which was half the show when we began, I don’t think the show will have legs. I don’t know that we’ll get to keep doing them because it starts to become nostalgic and that’s not what we wanted. I mean, it’s sort of what I wanted in the movie, but it’s not what I want to do if we’re going forward with more mini-series of Veronica Mars. We think it needs to be a straight detective show and there just aren’t many noir detective shows where the detective has a boyfriend or a girlfriend. I felt like we needed to have Veronica almost on her own moving forward.
Rob admitted that he is “terrified” of how fans will take the jaw-dropping death. “It’s a gamble,” he said. “I mean I know why we’re doing it. I think it’s the right thing, but there’s a chance that the fans will turn on the show and be resentful that we killed off Logan and could abandon us. So I am frightened of that.”
Since this is television and anything is possible, HollywoodLife did bring up to Rob that we never saw Logan’s body, which is a popular trope in pop culture. Rob shut down any possibility of Logan being alive. Rob said: “That is really interesting because we got a call earlier from a reporter saying, ‘Is Logan really dead?’ And I didn’t think I left any mystery of that. You don’t get to see a body after they’re blown to pieces. But you know, I did not mean to leave any mystery to that there. Logan is dead at the end of it.”
Veronica and Logan’s relationship ignited back in season 1 of the series. They finally took the next step and got married in season 4 but then tragedy struck. As we all know, Veronica doesn’t do well with confronting her feelings, and she’s never loved anyone the way she loved Logan. Is it even possible for her to find love again?
“I think it will be tough for her to have that intense of a relationship again, which is helpful actually moving forward with a noir detective show,” Rob told HollywoodLife. “I also sort of think that Veronica is at her most appealing the more of an underdog she is. So I’m actually excited to play with that aspect of it. But I also wanted to put that year in between the actual explosion and Veronica’s voiceover because when we do pick the story up, I don’t want to have to place her right in the middle of the grief. Our show relied so much on being witty and bantery and funny, that to place her in the immediate aftermath of Logan’s death I think would have been bad for what we do best.”
So many fan favorites returned for the season 4 revival. Mac and Piz were noticeably missing but Rob hasn’t ruled out bringing them back in the future. “Never say never,” Rob said. “It’s probably pretty clear from my shows that when there’s an actor I like, we will bring them back. I love Chris Lowell. There is not a plan there, but almost anything is possible. I absolutely adore Tina Majorino and she’s someone who I would love working with again.”
One of the most notable returns in season 4 was Leo. Veronica and Leo had quite the reunion and there was Veronica’s sex dream about Leo that definitely had fans with their jaws on the floor. HollywoodLife asked Rob if Veronica and Leo would possibly cross paths again considering they work in similar fields. “Yes, I love them onscreen together, which is not to say I now want to put Veronica in some sort of relationship with Leo. That is not my intention, but I do love watching Max [Greenfield] and Kristen on screen together. I feel like if my wife is any indication, Deputy Leo’s like one guy she would approve of in a post-Logan world. I definitely think that it’s a possibility. Max is really my favorite actors to work with.” Veronica Mars season 4 is now streaming on Hulu.