The Office star Leslie Baker has announced that he is returning over $100,000 (£78,276) of donations fans sent to his Kickstarter campaign for a proposed Stanley Hudson spin-off.
Baker went viral for launching the campaign back in 2020, but has been unable to get the project, titled Uncle Stan, off the ground. The show was set to centre around Stanley as he came out of retirement in Florida and travelled to Los Angeles to help his nephew save his motorcycle/flower business.
The actor launched the campaign with a crowdfunding goal of $300,000 (£234,747). By the end of its run, a total of $336,450 (£263,265.40) was raised. However, with the project seemingly no further ahead, some fans recently took to social media to question what Baker had done with the money.
Baker has since release a statement on Instagram, confirming that he would be returning all of the donated money after the project was stalled indefinitely by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing strikes in Hollywood. The actor also clarified that the funds were never used for personal matters.
“We apologise about the delay in updates,” Baker wrote. “We have been working behind the scenes to get everything on track and rewards fulfilled. We are just as excited as all of you to get this project out and truly appreciate all of your patience and support. The project took longer than anticipated due to circumstances beyond our control.”
“Initial delays were caused because of the COVID lockdowns and pushed us back further than expected,” he explained. “As things started returning to normal and we commenced reward fulfilment and preproduction, the WGA strike was announced causing us to put things on hold again. As you are all aware, SAG is now on strike and we will continue to be on hold indefinitely until an agreement is reached. We stand in solidarity with those in the entertainment industry and will do our part in supporting WGA and SAG during these times.”
Baker continued: “After careful consideration, we have decided to refund our backers. As a token of our appreciation, for your support and patience the Backer rewards will still be fulfilled along with a full refund.
“In light of the current economic situation, we felt that this was the best course of action. You will receive a message notifying you of your refund as soon as it is issued and you can expect to receive it over the following weeks. We will also be contacting Kickstarter to facilitate expediting this matter. We have remained in constant communication with our backers via direct messaging and rewards have continued to be fulfilled during this time.”
The actor went on to clarify: “FYI, although the total funded amount shown on our Kickstarter campaign page was stated as $336,450.53, that was not the actual final amount we received.
“A large portion of backers’ pledges were lowered, or completely dropped and never collected once the campaign was completed. The final amount that we received from Kickstarter was exactly $110,629.81.
He added: “The funds were never used for any purposes other than reward fulfilment and backer refunds, and have otherwise remained accounted for and untouched in the account.”
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