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Nearly 20 years after the first episode of The Guild was broadcast to the internet, fans have voted overwhelmingly with their wallets to give that franchise a movie. The extremely reasonable $1.5 million ask from Felicia Day and the rest of the cast of The Guild was met within the first three hours of the Kickstarter going live, and there’s very little to indicate that momentum is slowing. The Guild is headed to the Renaissance faire, and we’re all invited to join.
Few things demonstrate the passage of time like The Guild. When the first episode aired in 2007, things like live Comic Con experiences and shows about people gathering at a table to play D&D weren’t viewed as being big enough ideas to be taken seriously. The series itself is a vlog-style narration of an awkward cosplaying gamer whose friend group all played an online game that was definitely not World of Warcraft, and the antics involved when that friend group tried to gather in person.
Despite a volatile media landscape that caused the location of new episodes to move more than once, The Guild earned itself six seasons totaling 70 episodes, which finally drew to a close in 2013.
Day has been quite vocal about her belief that this show deserves a movie and has been actively trying to get it made for a while now. At one point, she promised that even if it was only ever released in podcast form, it would still be made. Despite living in the age of nostalgia bait, with Renaissance faires across the US more popular than ever and movies about games raking in the cash, Day and her co-producers were unable to get a Hollywood studio to pick up her pitch for the film. Kickstarter, however, has created the ideal conditions for this movie to get made.
The Kickstarter campaign launched early on Monday and immediately saw support from thousands of fans, including Dungeon Crawler Carl author Matt Dinniman. Campaign rewards include a digital release of the movie, Blu-ray copies of the full show, a unique popcorn bucket and a whole game bundle with a card game. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Day and her team understand the internet well enough to get something with this much history and humor funded, and I personally can’t wait to see this movie.
Russell Holly is a Managing Editor on the Commerce team at CNET. He works with all of CNET to assemble top recommendations as well as helping everyone find the best way to buy anything at the best price. When not writing for CNET you can find him riding a bike, running around in Jedi robes, or contributing to WOSU public radio's Tech Tuesday segment. See full bio
