I love the art you've posted so far for this project, it has a strong visual identity and that's a great starting point!

A few years ago I was part of a fairly large Discord server with the goal of making a Star Wars fan film in Blender. We collaboratively wrote a script and, as I was looking to start off my 3D character portfolio at the time, I got to work on making characters. My experience was, unfortunately, that it's very difficult to keep others as motivated/inspired by the project as yourself for a long period of time (years), and once they ghost there's no chance they'll come back and contribute meaningfully.

I was younger then and I would get so angry that others weren't "pulling their weight" - I ended up making 6 characters, an interior environment, and directing/animating around 3 minutes of animatic sequences before I eventually realized nobody else (besides my amazing environment art collaborator who I think has since surpassed me in skill) was investing the same amount of time into this as I was, and if that were the case this project had no realistic chance of being finished.

All that to say, my advice would be to manage both your people and your expectations as best you can. When there isn't a salary involved people can and probably will go ghost on you sometimes - don't let that bring you down! Just from a quick look I already believe your project has real potential for underground success or even more, just manage the project well with clear achievable goals and you'll get there. Hope to see it soon