Guest cast'd...

[If you consider the identity of guest stars to be a spoiler, then stop reading after this paragraph, but be sure to watch The Guild Season 5 Episode 6, 'Revolving Doors'...]

Felicia Day’s web series The Guild, centring around a group of gamers whose lives revolve around the game, rendering them quirky and dysfunctional in the real world, has become one of the internet’s most popular series, with over 100 million views to date. Its broad appeal can be attributed to the strength of the writing (by creator/producer/writer/star Felicia Day), the humour and likeability with which each of the cast bring their characters to life, and the balance between gaming in-jokes and more accessible character-based humour.

Following on from the casting of geek hero Wil Wheaton in a recurring role in Seasons 3 and 4, the latest episode of The Guild features three similarly squee-worthy guest stars: Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Serenity, Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog, Castle, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Doug Jones (Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, the Buffy episode ‘Hush’), and Maurissa Tancharoen (Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, Dollhouse). And now being in The Guild will make them even more geek-famous, if that’s possible (it’s probably not). But if you haven’t heard of any of these people, go now and watch everything they’ve ever done. You will not regret it.

This is probably the geekiest line-up of guest stars since Eureka included the geek legends Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, and Stan Lee. The casting director must have said “Eureka!” when they came up with that idea…

As well as having acted alongside and written for Felicia Day in Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog and Dollhouse, Maurissa Tancharoen has also previously guest starred on an episode of The Guild, as well as The Guild music video ‘Do You Want to Date My Avatar?’

This episode reunites Penny and Captain Hammer and Groupie #2 from Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog (a horribly familiar casting combination, even without Neil Patrick Harris/Doctor Horrible) (and Vi and Caleb from Buffy Season 7, as well as one of the Gentlemen from the Buffy Season 4 episode 'Hush'), and Mag and Kilo from Dollhouse.

Given the Whedonverse connections of the cast, presumably this is an attempt to remind Joss Whedon of how awesome the internet can be (as a storytelling platform, not for procrastination) in order to make sure he makes Doctor Horrible 2, and preferably also Wastelanders and more internet productions, before going off and doing Avengers sequels for years. Not that continuing Avenging would be a bad thing for Joss Whedon, given that he’s essentially the perfect director for The Avengers, but there are also many other potential avenues for awesomeness that should not be neglected. (Not that the fans actually have any say in the matter, but it’s fun to speculate wildly.)

The Guild Season 5 Episode 6, ‘Revolving Doors’ is available to watch now here. The entire series up to this point can be viewed at http://www.watchtheguild.com/.

MTV Geek

Update: The next episode, S5 E7, 'Downturn', is now available here, featuring more geeky guest stars...

Another update: The episode after that, S5 E8, ''Social Traumas'', has raised the game again, featuring even more geek guest stars than ever before (according to Jane Espenson, "The best guest star roster I've ever seen!"), and is now available here.

See also:

Stylish trailer for Bryan Singer’s dystopian sci-fi H+ The Digital Series

Jane Espenson: Once Upon a Torchwood Web Series

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