The intense amount of loyalty fans have for Supernatural means that it makes quite a splash on the convention circuit. Supernatural’s actors, creative team, and crew have always enjoyed a warm relationship with fans, and show it by regularly appearing at SPN conventions all over the world.
Now, two SPN creatives are crowdfunding a new comedy, Kings of Con, about the con experience from an actor’s perspective. Actors Rob Benedict, who plays Chuck the Prophet on the show, and Richard Speight, who plays the trickster angel Gabriel, will be playing “caricatures of themselves,” along with numerous guests from Supernatural and other geeky favorites.
The campaign follows hard on the heels of a very similar project—the Firefly fandom tribute series Con Man. Con Man creates a fictional failed cult TV series as a backdrop for former Firefly actors Alan Tudyk and Nathan Filion to explore the ins and outs of sci-fi conventions and the dynamics of fandoms built around cult shows. That crowdfunding campaign has raised a whopping $2.5 million in two weeks so far.
Speight and Benedict joked about the coincidental timing of the two fandom launches, noting that their own show has been in development for over a year, and that they decided to push forward.
It looks as though the decision has paid off: In the three days since the IndieGoGo campaign launched, it’s already garnered $75,000 of its $100,000 goal.
Where Con Man is self-described as “Extras meets Galaxy Quest,” Kings of Con is tagged as “Broad City meets Party Down with the comedic honesty of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Louis CK.”
In other words, it will most likely focus less on the fandoms around the cons and more around the stories of the main characters and the situations they find themselves in, taking fans behind the scenes and showing them what’s happening backstage in the lives of two minor stars on the con circuit—ones who’ve spent years “appearing at airport hotels across the country and abroad.”
The fandom has responded positively: so far nearly 1,800 backers have contributed to the crowdfund, which even already has fanart. On Friday Benedict and Speight updated to thank fans for their support thus far and encourage them to keep promoting the campaign on Tumblr.
It’s been a good month for con-lovers. Earlier this month the new streaming platform Con TV launched as a way to provide targeted content to geeks of all stripes. Both Con Man and Kings of Con are likewise aimed at fans of very different cult shows which still have thriving, impassioned fanbases.
Screengrab via Vimeo