The Veronica Mars movie just gained points in the throwback department. Enrico Colantoni has signed on to play Veronica’s father.

Fans will be very happy to learn that Keith Mars, one of the Veronica Mars series regulars, will indeed be back for the movie.

“There was a lot of fierce competition for the role,” writes Rob Thomas in an e-mail to those who funded the Veronica Mars movie project on Kickstarter in March, “but I think you’ll agree that Enrico’s unique experience makes him the only man qualified for the job.”

A fan favorite character, Keith was a former sheriff working as a private detective, and following Veronica’s mother’s disappearance, he and his daughter grew very close.

We wonder what Keith will be doing 10 years after we last left Neptune and its inhabitants behind! Will he perhaps be back in the sheriff’s office, or retired? Or still a PI, working with Veronica?

“The first time I noticed Rico was in Hope and Glory, and he was playing a kind of working class schlub, and he was the guy I wanted to watch,” Thomas writes in the email announcement.

He continues, “Then he knocked me out as this urbane playboy in Just Shoot Me. I became friends and creative partners with Dan Etheridge when we ran into each other at the Cinerama Dome, both of us catching a Galaxy Quest matinee for a third time, and Rico was breaking people’s heart as an alien.”

On casting Colantoni as Keith for the TV series, Thomas explains, “I didn’t write Keith Mars with Rico in mind, but when his name came up on a casting list, I said, ‘That’s the guy.’ We didn’t take anyone else to network. There was no plan B.”

The Veronica Mars movie plans to shoot this summer and hit select theaters in early 2014. The film will simultaneously be released on DVD/Blu-ray.

The Veronica Mars movie project fundraising effort took the world by storm and was able to raise over $5.7 million.