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The Guild: Felicia Day on Reunion Update, Kickstarter Perks & More

Felicia Day offered an update on The Guild: Ren Faire’d, and discussed Kickstarter perks, stretch goals, The Guild TTRPG, and much more.

Long after The Guild ended its original run, the fans are still singing its praises, coming out in droves to contribute to the upcoming reunion film Kickstarter, and creator and star Felicia Day couldn't be prouder of the community love. Coming off of San Diego Comic Con, there's still much more work to do as she's transitioning from San Diego to Indianapolis for Gen Con. Aside from going all out on the schwag, Day has also been busy making some calls from some industry friends like Supernatural star Misha Collins and The Rookie star Nathan Fillion, who will appear in The Guild: Ren Faire'd as a few of the many surprises in store. In part one of our interview, Day spoke to Bleeding Cool about the surprise turnaround and meeting their financial goal in record time, the follow-up work that still needs to be done, being careful to build up the film properly, and the perks, which include the official film popcorn bucket and The Guild TTRPG.

The Guild: Ren Faire'd: Felicia Day on Kickstarter Process, Rewarding Contributors, Guest Stars, Perks, Stretch Goals & More

Bleeding Cool: How's the momentum from [San Diego] Comic-Con?

Day: Oh, boy! Comic Con was so fun. I really was disciplined and went to sleep early each night, so I'm not quite in the con hangover as I would have been, but I'm still really tired because I ran all over; I did so many panels. We did an activation with the backers sponsored by Kickstarter. We had a party, and I danced all night. Yeah, it was a great weekend, and now I'm off to Gen Con tomorrow, which is wild.

Is it going to be just as busy at Gen Con?

Yes, Gen Con has- I'm doing a lot of Let's Plays, because this is my excuse to go there and do a bunch of 'D&D' with people, and under the "auspices" of doing press and being visible for the Kickstarter. Really, I'm just excited to sit down for a couple of hours in each game, and I get to play a different character, different world. It's going to be so much fun.

Yeah, so were you surprised at how quickly the goal was met with the turnaround when ['The Guild'] Kickstarter was announced?

We were live-streaming for 12 hours the first day, and when we made a million dollars in three hours, I started crying. It was more…I mean…we were caught unaware. We honestly did not think we would reach our first goal so fast, so we had to scramble the next couple of days to get all the awards, give people some wonderful stretch goals just automatically, and then formulate all the other tiers that we're offering. I mean, you don't want to be arrogant and be like, "I'm going to make a couple million dollars in 24 hours." That would be delusional thinking, but at this point, I guess I should have been a little more delusional, but we're all good now, and we're rolling out these things every day. It's such a wild ride to be on.

So, in addition to the original 'The Guild' cast, you also have some favorites come back with Tara [Caso], Brett [Sheridan], and Wil [Wheaton], of course. Was there much arm-twisting to get Misha [Collins] and Nathan [Fillion] on board? I know Nathan appeared in the original series.

Yes, yes, but we don't know what he's playing. I'm not going to tell anybody anything like that. These are very successful actors doing me a favor. I mean no matter what we are, a low-budget movie everyone's making the same. We're making a movie on like half of the budget of a one-hour TV show, and that's like a not-fancy TV show like 'Game of Thrones.' It's just like I don't know, it could be 10 times the budget. Again, it's still going to be hard, but at the end of the day, my friends know that I make good stuff. I treat them respectfully, and the fact that they're going to show up for me is so phenomenal. It blows me away a little bit.

I am curious, combing through the details [of the Kickstarter page] and everything, and I was seeing Ruth Connell there [as a "legend reveal"], and is there a chance that she might be there too in the film?

You know, here's the problem. There is a surfeit of actors I know and adore and would love to create parts for. I want to shove as many of my friends in this movie as possible. I will not eliminate anyone. Again, we're not going to announce all of our guest stars during the campaign because a lot of people don't want to sign on until we have updates, actually, and I don't want to be like, "Obviously, schedules change, sometimes casting might change," but I don't want to announce somebody who definitely maybe can't do it. Also, I don't want to announce a bunch of cameos, because I want to keep them in my pocket. I want the fun to be there. It's a real balance of what to reveal and what to keep back, and we need to raise as much money as possible to make the best movie possible. I don't want to give away all the fun, because we got a long journey to go. The movie won't be out for at least a year.

When it came to the promotional items for the Kickstarter, how long did that process take? What stood out to me, of course, was the official "Poopcorn" bucket. There's actually a real bucket, and with the deluge of popcorn buckets, there was like one that was simply a bike [like the Lobo one from 'Supergirl'] that's like, "that can't fit any real scoop in there." That's not a popcorn bucket.

No, this is a real bucket. I agree with you. The novelty of the popcorn bucket has gotten a little wild. The Trojan horse [from 'The Odyssey'] is so cool, but how much popcorn can you really fit in there, right? No, we're doing a real bucket, and I wish I could claim credit for this, but it was my producer, Ryan [Copple], and my Kickstarter manager, John. This was their sole focus: making sure that it was economically feasible for us to make this bucket, and we had a very accomplished 3D modeler who does, like, huge video games to do the modeling. Once we get it molded and sent over, it's going to look even way better than it does in the 3D printed video. But listen, this is how I can…I'm independent. We could have a dumb idea like this. We don't focus test anything. If he makes us laugh, we're going to do it, and that's the joy of doing things without a boss.

I also noticed the TTRPG on there. I didn't know if it was something that had been out for a while or if it's just something that's completely new? What are the systems that inspired the source book and everything?

Yeah, so I was thinking about doing a TTRPG a couple of years ago on my own, and I just didn't have the bandwidth. I played with my cast over COVID, and we had such a good time, but it certainly was not canon. We got really blue, really fast, and so I was thinking about exploring the show in that format, and then when we were gearing up for the Kickstarter, we knew that a movie is not going to raise enough money straight. I treat this almost like a merch store, and all the profit is going to making the content that we want to make, which is primarily the movie, and then after 4.5 million, which I hope we raise pretty fast, we have a really cool thing that we're going to announce after that, so stretch goals.

I had no idea that one of my cast members, Vince Caso, was a professional DM, and he's been writing, and he is really excellent, and so with my supervision about just rewriting for comedy, he is like, "Mr. Technical Master." He knows all the mechanics of designing subclasses, monsters, encounters, and all that stuff. For Sandeep Parikh, who plays Zaboo, and me, we're there to make sure things feel like for me, the flavor of the show, and then just bump jokes when we can. I have to say, the work is incredible. I think people are going to really love it. It definitely channels the irreverent, funny, modern twist spirit of the show into a traditional D&D world, and that's exactly what we wanted to do.

For more information on The Guild: Ren Faire'd Kickstarter, including details, available perks, and benefits, you can visit here. You can also check out Day's upcoming game, The Puppy Roll 3, at Gen Con, hosted by Anjali Bhimani and Petco Love.

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