After reaching its initial funding goal in less than three hours, Felicia Day’s The Guild: Ren Faire’d has officially surpassed $5.79 million on Kickstarter, setting a Guiness World Record and becoming the most funded movie project in the crowdfunding history, with 2 days still left to go on the campaign.

The campaign has received support from more than 37,000 backers and reached 385% of its original funding goal, surpassing the previous record set by Veronica Mars, which raised $5,702,153. The achievement marks a major milestone for independently produced entertainment and cements the power of the creator economy, ensuring the original “Knights of Good” return for a new feature-length adventure ahead of The Guild’s 20th anniversary in 2027.

Now that The Guild: Ren Faire’d has officially surpassed the $5.79 million world-record mark, the adventure isn’t over yet. Every additional dollar raised will continue to support the film, while also helping fund an all-new animated special. For the first time, fans will get to see the Guildies fully become their in-game characters and venture into Dragonor, the fantasy RPG world they’ve spent years playing together. Except the same comedy, chaos and lovable dysfunction of the live-action series into a short animated fantasy adventure.

The campaign entered its launch as the most-followed movie project in Kickstarter history, nearly two decades after fans helped fund the original series through a PayPal donation button on The Guild’s website, pioneering online crowdfunding long before Kickstarter existed. That early support allowed Day to complete the show’s first season and helped demonstrate that creator-owned digital entertainment could find both commercial and cultural success outside of the traditional Hollywood system.

“Becoming the most-funded movie in Kickstarter history is completely surreal.” said Felicia Day, creator of The Guild. “We started this campaign because we wanted to prove there was still a way to make something weird and wonderful with the people who actually want to see it, instead of waiting for someone to give us permission. And once again, the Guildies showed up in a way I never could have imagined. I’m overwhelmed, incredibly grateful, and so incredibly pumped to go make the movie they deserve. But mostly grateful. As the community says, suck it suits!”

Created, written by, and starring Day, The Guild: Ren Faire’d will reunite Codex (Felicia Day), Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh), Vork (Jeff Lewis), Tink (Amy Okuda), Clara (Robin Thorsen), and Bladezz (Vincent Caso), continuing their story in the same independent, community-driven spirit that made the original series a defining part of online fandom and geek culture. Nathan Fillion, Misha Collins, and Wil Wheaton have also joined the cast, with even more surprise additions still to come.

In order to reach this record-breaking total, Day and her team took an unconventional approach to crowdfunding. While most film campaigns center on traditional rewards like Blu-rays, posters, and T-shirts, The Guild: Ren Faire’d expanded the campaign into something much bigger. By bringing together original tabletop games, premium collectibles, creator collaborations, exclusive merchandise, and live experiences, the campaign became a full-fledged fan event; one designed not only to fund an independent feature, but to celebrate the community and culture that made The Guild possible in the first place.

THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN INCLUDES:

• The full-length reunion movie featuring the original Knights of Good cast
• Swords & Sweethearts, a dating-sim card game created by Ryan Copple and developed in partnership with Scrungo Games, the licensing division from the team behind Cyanide & Happiness and Joking Hazard
• A collected The Guild graphic novel omnibus from Image Comics with original cover by Leila Del Duca
• A 120-page The Guild tabletop roleplaying game written by Vince Caso and developed in partnership with Hit Point Press, along with art from Dan Gartman and Pauliina Hannuniemi
• Custom 7-piece dice set with nods to the each main cast members
• A collectible “Poopcorn” popcorn bucket inspired by the film’s ren faire setting designed by Ryan Lesser at Wild Power Games
• A plush Codex “Emotional Support” bag charm by David DePasquale
• A tapestry blanket of the series ‘ infamous “Highland Sextasy” painting by Greg Aronowitz.
• A cast signed movie poster illustrated by Adam Allsuch Boardman
• A signed and bound version of Felicia’s personal production script, with all the marks and doodles
• A campaign-exclusive T-shirt designed by Sam Prentice Jones, blind-box enamel pin collection by David DePasquale, and sticker set by the original Guild character artist Erik McKenney
• A three-disc, 20th anniversary Blu-ray of the original with new content
• A limited edition Blu-ray of the The Guild: Ren Faire’d with exclusive content
• Additional digital rewards, collectibles, add-ons, and campaign-exclusive experiences

As part of the campaign’s expanding slate of fan-unlocked content, Conludo – a new board game series co-hosted by Day and Wil Wheaton – was recently announced. Each episode of Conludo centers around a shared topic of conversation between Felicia and Wil, before they choose a board game that fits the conversation and invite their friends to play along. Fans can unlock up to 10 episodes of Conludo by continuing to support the movie via Kickstarter.

Created, written by, and starring Felicia Day, The Guild premiered on July 27, 2007, and followed the members of an online gaming guild whose virtual adventures frequently collided with their real lives. The series ran for six seasons and 70 episodes, plus three music videos, and generated more than 300 million lifetime views across platforms. Across its run, The Guild earned six Streamy Awards and four International Academy of Web Television Awards, appeared on Rolling Stone’s list of “The Net’s Best Serial Shows,” and was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution, which accessioned Codex’s costume into its digital culture collection.

A long-time fan and reveler of all things Geek, I am also the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of GamingShogun.com