New Mary Kate Wiles web series Kissing in the Rain invited the audience to create the show’s canon.

Just in time for the very first trailer, A Tell Tale Vlog showrunner Yulin Kuang speaks with Hypable about the recently announced transmedia experiment that will accompany her next series, Kissing in the Rain.

‘Kissing in the Rain’ trailer:

As well as “angst, kissing, and rain,” Kuang says audiences can expect each episode to be “essentially split into two acts: first, a sweeping, cinematic scene set in the rain, followed by a glimpse of our actors on set moments following the big kiss in the rain.”

As excited as we can get for damp actors, the most interesting aspect of this new project is the transmedia set to accompany it. The role of the audience is suddenly crucial to the construction of the show’s canon. Tumblr users will be able to create their own fanart, fanfiction and any other “headcanon.” If their contributions are reblogged by the Shipwrecked Tumblr, they will become official Kissing in the Rain canon.

Sound complicated? “I can only describe [the transmedia experiment] as a curated, community-written canonical companion piece to the series,” says Kuang.

The experiment raises interesting questions about the nature of canon and the role of fandom. As Yuang explains in the original announcement, “My one superpower as showrunner is declaring what’s canon, and this is what I’ve decided to do with that power.” This is in contrast to another recent transmedia experiment, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries spinoff Welcome to Sanditon, where the framework for audience participation implied that all user-generated content was canon.

Kissing in the Rain focuses on two sets of actors (Wiles and Sean Persaud; Sinead Persaud and Sairus Graham), as they re-enact the most romantic kisses in history, all filmed (you guessed it) in the rain. The synopses for each story are now available:

Chapter I: Lily and James

Actors Lily (Wiles) and James (Sean Persaud) keep finding themselves kissing in the rain despite not being particularly fond of each other.

Chapter II: Audrey and Henry

Actors Audrey (Sinead Persaud) and Henry (Graham) keep finding themselves kissing in the rain, yet can’t seem to find a way to tell each other their feelings off camera.

The series sees Mary Kate Wiles continue to build her presence in the world of web series. As far as Kuang is concerned, “I was a fan of Mary Kate’s work pretty much since Lydia high-fived the camera in the pilot episode of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.”

As for the chemistry between Wiles and her co-star? “She and Sean have incredible chemistry and they really did such a beautiful job of bringing both the actors and the characters they were playing to life. I pretty much just want to cast them both in everything I do now.”

Kissing in the Rain does not have a set premiere date.