For years, many had been chanting #SixSeasonsAndAMovie for the television cult hit Community, and now, they finally got it. Among those who certainly can't believe it's finally happening is the star of the show, Joel McHale.
It's amazing to think the show will be getting a movie greenlit since it's been over seven years since Community last aired any new episodes. While hosting a charity gala at the Shaquille O'Neal Foundation, McHale voiced his excitement to play Jeff Winger again for the first time since 2015, especially after all the development hell Community went through from when it first started airing in 2009.
According to Entertainment Tonight, McHale celebrated that Community's popular hashtag become a reality. "We can't believe a show that was canceled twice is now [getting a movie]," McHale said. "The 'Six Seasons and a Movie' hashtag actually freaking happened!" McHale then pointed out that the show's lack of audience when it was airing would have made him think a Community movie was out of the realm of possibility. "If you had said in 2009, after a show that was canceled twice, that there would be a movie, I would say that you're high," McHale said laughingly. "[But] we're doing it! Thank you, Peacock, for funding it. I hope you're ready for what's gonna happen. We're very excited, Dan's excited, and yeah, I really can't believe it."
With the Community movie being greenlit, those who have been confirmed to be onboard for it have also been Alison Brie (Annie Edison), Gillian Jacobs (Britta Perry), Danny Pudi (Abed Nadir), Jim Rash (Dean Pelton) and Ken Jeong (Ben Chang). As of now, there has been no confirmation that Donald Glover will return as Troy Barnes or that Yvette Nicole Brown will return as Shirley Bennett. There's also been no confirmation that Chevy Chase will return as Pierce Hawthorne, but knowing how tumultuous his relationship was with the cast and the crew before he left the Community show, odds are they probably won't bring him back, and if they do, it's probably only going to be in a small cameo.
One thing needs to be clear. They need all the ingredients back for a movie. Glover and Brown brought more layers to the show's comedy. While Community managed just fine without them, the show was still better off when they were there. The movie also needs the Russo brothers back in production because it would not have pulled off its comedy with the precision it did without their work. Again, the show didn't go sour when they lost some of their ingredients - with Harmon not being around for season 4 as the exception - but when they had everything in place, Community was one of the funniest shows ever made.
The one question that remains is how they will convert Community's style into a movie format. Community more or less reinvented the genre of parody when they were on their A-Game, but that was only for 22 minutes an episode. Presumably, they will go to their bread and butter with parody, but are they going to parody one genre throughout the entire movie, or will they parody multiple genres in the runtime? They have all the time in the world to figure out how they'll pull this off. In the meantime, they still have to figure out who will be there and who won't when they start filming.
The Community movie will be released as a Peacock exclusive.
Source: Entertainment Tonight