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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
Anytime now. This will be one for the books.
Peacock will bring Community‘s “Six Seasons and a Movie” mantra to completion by finally bringing us the “And a Movie” end.
The Announcement
Last weekend, Michael Schneider of Variety reported that Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong will join the long-awaited several-years-in-the-making project. They will be returning to the franchise as their respective characters: Jeffrey “Jeff” Winger, Abed Nadir, Annie Edison, Britta Perry, Dean Craig Pelton, and Ben Chang.
Along with the help of Sony Pictures Television, the Peacock streaming platform announced the film project’s being greenlit. The two entities went through “heavily competitive” matters for Peacock to secure the film in the middle of a bidding war. In the process of these negotiations, the streaming service gained non-exclusive rights for all six seasons of the Community series. The series is currently streaming on both Netflix and Hulu.
As of now, series creator Dan Harmon is set to serve as an executive producer and writer, alongside Andrew Guest. McHale will serve as EP next to Russ Krasnoff and Gary Foster — both EP’d Community during its 6-season run. Harmon reportedly stated having an outline made.
No details on when the film will release have been revealed thus far.
What About Our Other Favorites?
With Chevy Chase’s Pierce Hawthorne being written off (i.e. the character dying) in the series’ fifth season, it is more than likely that both the character and the actor will not be returning. It should also be noted that Chase’s feelings, behaviors, and actions in the later seasons factor into this likeliness. However, we won’t get into the details of that. What we do know is that Harmon says legal papers would need to be signed if this were to happen.
Earlier this past weekend, Jennifer Maas of Variety also reports that Donald Glover may appear in the Community film as one of the original “Greendale Seven” study group members, character Troy Barnes. Harmon confirmed that other characters could still Pop! Pop! into the project. He stated:
I think that Donald is coming, based on word of mouth, but it’s just the deal isn’t official or wasn’t official. It would be difficult to really commit to doing this thing without Donald. So I believe he is coming back.
I think if there [are] names missing from a list, it’s because the names that are on the list, their deals are agreed upon enough that it’s okay to say they are on the list, and anybody that’s not on a list, it’s just not the case yet. So there is nothing official about anybody being out.
Dan Harmon
With Glover wrapping up the fourth and final season of his surreal comedy-drama series, Atlanta, and in the middle of production on Amazon Studios’ Mr. and Mrs. Smith, his involvement in the film could be a possibility. Only time will tell.
As for Yvette Nicole Brown, who portrayed Shirley Bennett (another of the Greendale Seven), she has teased fervently about her excitement for the project. However, she has not directly stated her involvement in it.
Director?
In addition to the lack of a release date, Harmon acknowledged the topic of the film’s director.
There’s a director that directed some of my favorite episodes of ‘Community’ that it would be great to see be able to do the movie. And that’s not even mentioning the Russo Brothers, who I would also love to see come back. But I’m just making the assumption that they’re too busy
…
But we haven’t had any official, legitimate conversations with people. Sony’s strategy was, let’s make this a project that exists and then we’ll talk about attaching directors. I think they’re doing that because, depending on the size of that director, the director could then make the deal more complicated to close. So it’s much easier to make sure it’s happening and now we can go out to directors and say, would you be interested? But that process hasn’t started yet… It also makes it exciting to be able to just announce, “So-and-so is directing it,” and, “Now Donald Glover is officially in it for real,’”and we can parcel out these announcements.
Dan Harmon
How Community Ended Up With Peacock
According to Maas, Harmon said that the film project caught the interest of larger platforms (one can only assume Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix), but that Peacock “made an offer that felt right”. He states:
Everybody that we talked to arrived at around the same number, in terms of a budget, that was reasonable to them, and that includes places like Amazon. But Peacock, they’re the Greendale Community College of streamers — maybe they don’t want that marketing. They do share a DNA with us, but more importantly, because of that, I think they saw this and knew we’d be a beloved partner with them. And they’ve really expressed that in the ways of how they’re very, very interested in promoting the movie and letting us make it the way we want to. They were able to express those things in a contract that means something. This is a case of, there might be a more popular prom date here, but do we want to just be lucky to partner with someone that doesn’t have to give us the time of day? Or do we want to really actually collaborate with somebody that’s kind of in the same zone as us, which is, we want to make something great and let everybody know when it’s on and stuff like that.
…
In a reasonably intense bidding situation, Peacock was the one that was bidding love and dedication, and we went with them.
Dan Harmon
Other Statements on the Community Film
Susan Rovner, a Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television, and Streaming, had this to say about the Community film:
“Six seasons and a movie” started out as a cheeky line from ‘Community’s early seasons and quickly ignited a passionate fan movement for this iconic, hilarious and cool (cool, cool) NBC comedy. We’re incredibly grateful that 15 years later, we are able to deliver fans this promised movie and can’t wait to get to work with Dan Harmon, Andrew Guest, Joel McHale, Sony and our partners at UTV to continue this epic comedy for Peacock audiences.
Susan Rovner
Jason Clodfelter (co-president of Sony Pictures Television Studios) and Erin Underhill (president of Universal TV) also had statements about the project’s announcement:
‘Community’ was light years ahead of its time when it premiered on NBC in 2009 and we are thrilled to once again visit the brilliant minds of Dan Harmon, Andrew Guest and this impeccable cast. We are grateful to Peacock, our partners at UTV and to all the zealous fans who have cherished this iconic show.
Jason Clodfelter
This franchise is the very definition of community. We’re excited to bring the band back together and continue the journey of these beloved characters.
Erin Underhill
Background on Community
Community centers on a group of seven community college students in Colorado who start off as strangers and peers in an Introductory Spanish class. Over the course of six seasons, the seven students bond with one another and become not just a family, but a community of individuals.
In mid-May 2020, the main cast of the series — excluding Chase and including guest Pedro Pascal — gathered together via Zoom to do a virtual table read of Community Season 5 Episode 4 — “Cooperative Polygraphy”. You can watch the full video recording of that here.
More recently, The Cinema Spot spoke with filmmaker/ actor Gillian Jacobs earlier this spring on whether she would be involved in the Community film.
Harmon also serves as the co-creator of Adult Swim‘s adult animated science-fiction sitcom, Rick and Morty. The series is currently in its sixth season. Guest wrote six episodes of Community‘s first two seasons. He went on to serve as a consulting producer on Marvel Studios’ winter 2021 miniseries, Hawkeye.
Have you seen Community? If so, then what are your thoughts on the series? Let us know! For more comedy-related news and reviews visit and follow The Cinema Spot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Source: Variety, via Michael Schneider and Jennifer Maas
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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