Fans have been waiting for years with bated breath for this moment to arrive, and now the wait is finally over. Veronica Mars the movie has become a reality. Yes, you heard that right. Veronica Mars the movie, coming to theaters in 2014.

Now, I don’t consider myself a superfan – I wasn’t one of the 10,000 fans to send Mars Bars to the studio nor did I orchestrate the “Renew Veronica Mars” banner to be flown over the CW offices. That said, I will tell anyone who’ll listen how incredible the series is and how I wish I could watch it all over again for the first time. (Before you cast judgment, watch the show and then talk to me.) I am beyond excited about Veronica Mars the movie. The old gang back together again? Yes, please. So how did this miraculous moment come to be, you ask? Kickstarter.

Together with familiar faces from the cast, on March 13 producer Rob Thomas launched a Veronica Mars movie Kickstarter campaign.

Crowd-funding a film is nothing new (31 Kickstarter films showed this year at SWSX). What is new is for a studio-backed film (Warner Bros. owns the rights to the show) to completely fund production through crowd-sourcing. Veronica Mars is Kickstarter’s highest ever fully-funded goal, reaching $2 million in only 10 hours. With 16 days to go, the project currently has raised just under $4 million with nearly 60,000 backers.

The idea of a studio project being funded through Kickstarter has the Internet buzzing. Many are concerned that with the success of Veronica Mars, fans of other cult shows – Freaks and Geeks, Friday Night Lights – will come to expect the same thing for their favorite series. The phenom of Veronica Mars is not something that is likely to happen with many other shows. The script was already written (Rob Thomas pitched it to Warner Bros. in 2009 with no luck) and the star (Kristen Bell) was on board before the Kickstarter campaign launched. Not to mention the incredible fan base that made the project possible. As for the naysayers that are worried the film won’t live up to fans’ expectations? That can happen with any movie – whether or not you have money in the game. If the movie is a bust, at least financially invested fans will have a memento to take away, from a PDF of the script to a speaking role.

Good or bad, I will be enjoying every moment of the Veronica Mars movie and yes, I am one of those fans that wishes the same fate for Freaks and Geeks and Friday Night Lights – but I’ll leave it up to superfans to handle the financials.