Earlier this month, Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson launched a Kickstarter page, asking for at least $2 million to create new episodes of the cult classic TV series. The campaign reached its first goal of $2 million in just eight days, which will fund the first three episodes, but they are seeking as much as $5.5 million to produce an entire 12-episode season. The campaign has raised $2.59 million so far, and earlier today, Joel Hodgson posted an update on the Kickstarter page, revealing that Felicia Day has come aboard to portray Kinga Forrester, the daughter of Dr. Clayton Forrester, with comedians Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn set to voice Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo.

Felicia Day's Kinga Forrester will be the new Mad Scientist in this updated version of MST3K, who Joel Hodgson described as both comedic and threatening. The original mad scientist was her father, Dr. Clayton Forrester, but the series creator wouldn't divulge too many details about this new character. Here's what he had to say about how he decided that Felicia Day should play Kinga.

"I don't remember where I first saw Felicia, but I remember knowing right away that there was something really interesting about her: both the way she looked and the way she behaved. She was beautiful, and yet, so capable of being character-y too: I suppose that makes her "adorkable." Anyway, I checked out her seminal webseries, The Guild, and was just delighted. She was like a geek Mary Richards from The Mary Tyler Moore Show! And then I saw her in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and again, I was just so impressed. Even after that, though, I wasn't 100% sure. I didn't know if she'd be interested, and I've never really gotten in touch with anyone I don't know to join the MST3K cast. (For example, the entire old cast of MST3K lived near each other in Minneapolis.) I don't really start my process by calling agents and whatnot, so I just didn't pursue it. And then, about 6 or 8 weeks ago at the Salt Lake ComicCon, I got a message from my booking agent, saying, 'Did you know that Felicia Day really wants to meet you?' Interesting. So we met in the green room that afternoon, and she was funny and sweet. She's kind of a goof, but there's also this manic side to her that will let her do 'crazy.'"

Felicia Day will be joined by comedian Jonah Ray, who will be the new host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, along with Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn set to voice Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo. The series still needs to cast a new "Evil Henchman," so we'll have to wait and see who gets cast for what appears to be the last major role. Here's what Joel Hodgson had to say about the casting of Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn.

"When it came time to think about casting the new voices of Tom Servo and Crow, I had a feeling that our best bet was to find some talented young comedians. That was how our original casts came together too, back in Minneapolis, and that seemed to work out pretty well. But for a while, that's as far as it went, because it's hard to cast Crow and Servo until you've got a host to put them with. Once Jonah agreed that he wanted to become the next host, things started to move again. And since he would be the one in the movie riffing trenches with Crow and Servo, I felt it was important to let Jonah help find the right people. There had to be real chemistry to our choices, not just casting. Anyway, Jonah told me to check out Hampton and Baron. I watched a ton of their videos online and thought they were pretty great, so the next time I was in LA - about a year ago - we went out to eat together and had our first "official meeting," which really just means that I picked up the check. After that first meeting, I knew that I liked them both a lot, but I still hadn't decided. So, I asked them to do a "test session" on Skype, and gave them some lines to read as Crow and Servo. Just to see what they'd do with it, you know? And sure, they did great first reads on the respective characters, but it was the stuff between takes that kind of took my breath away. They were just so great at riffing off each other and so quick on their feet. I remember thinking it was like going down the rabbit hole and seeing a glimpse of the future MST3K. Then, when it came time to make our Kickstarter video, I asked them to help out."

The Kickstarter campaign for Mystery Science Theater 3000 will end on December 11, so we'll have to see if they can raise just under $3 million more to produce a full 12-episode season. Felicia Day is best known for her web series The Guild, and she also created the YouTube channel Geek and Sundry. Hampton Yount produced the TV series Ridiculousness and he has also appeared on NBC's Last Comic Standing. Baron Vaughn is best known for playing Leonardo Prince on USA Network's Fairly Legal, and he currently stars on Netflix's Grace and Frankie.