PARTING SHOT
Illustra ion by BRITT SPENCER
“THE FIRST MONTH WE WERE SHOOTING,” SAYS KRISTEN BELL OF HULU’S revival of Veronica Mars, “I kept looking around and going, ‘Who let us do this? This is absurd! Shows are not brought back from the dead.’” Unless it’s a show starring Bell; if she has a superpower, it’s bringing characters back to life. The Rob Thomas–created Mars, which concluded in 2007 and made Bell a star, returns for eight episodes in 2019. Frozen 2, featuring Bell as the voice of Anna and opening November 19, will be Disney’s first non-Pixar animated sequel. And, of course, her Eleanor Shellstrop, on NBC’s The Good Place (now in its third “motherforking” season), has been to hell and back. Mars will pick up with snarky sleuth Veronica moving back home; Patton Oswalt and J.K. Simmons have joined the original cast for a “much more cinematic and adult version” of the series. “For six months, I’ll only be able to tuck my kids in two nights a week,” says Bell of her schedule. But she sees Mars as a future gift for her preschool daughters with actor Dax Shepard. “That’s how I sort of justify the sacrifice to take on a monster show like this again.”