Six Seasons and a Movie! Almost eight years after its series finale in 2015, Community will finally fulfill its catch-cry prophecy. The show's lead star Joel McHale revealed back on September 30, 2022, that the film was officially in production via Twitter and Instagram. The streaming platform Peacock will be the future streamer of the film. Previously, the Community cast and creator Dan Harmon have been questioned about the potential movie for several years.
Yet, the busy schedules of all the show's stars certainly made it difficult to coordinate a film. Over the years, the cast maintained hope and even collaborated with each other on various projects in the meantime. Almost all the cast members guest-starred on Ken Jeong's 2015 sitcom Dr. Ken and have voiced characters for Harmon's other popular show with a cult following, Rick and Morty.
The closest we got to a Community reunion before was, of course, the 2020 Zoom table read where the main ensemble (minus Chevy Chase) read Episode 4 of Season 5 "Cooperative Polygraphy". The event served as a long-awaited reunion full of nostalgia and has finally built up to the official production of the movie.
Community first aired in 2009 and revolved around the story of Jeff Winger (McHale), a smarmy lawyer who is forced to go back to college due to his illegitimate college degree. Deciding on a community college called Greendale, he attempts to take a shortcut to get back to his job. Unfortunately, he makes the painful realization that it'll take a lot more work than he wishes to deal with. Yet, Jeff does befriend a Spanish study group of misfits who eventually become his family through all the misadventures that they experience while at Greendale. Such tomfoolery ranges from campus-wide paintball to finding secret trampolines.
Deemed a comedy that was ahead of its time, Community gathered a massive cult following of fans who managed to save the show twice from cancelation with online campaigns and steadfast loyalty. The pay-off has finally come full circle to manifest the initial-joke-turned-catch-cry of #SixSeasonsandaMovie.
Before we find out if things are truly still in the darkest timeline, here's everything we know so far on the Community movie.
Editor's Note: This article was updated on July 12.
Community
TV-14
Comedy
A suspended lawyer is forced to enroll in a community college with an eccentric staff and student body.
- Release Date
- September 17, 2009
- Cast
- Joel McHale , Gillian Jacobs , Danny Pudi , Alison Brie , Jim Rash , Ken Jeong , Paget Brewster , Keith David
- Main Genre
- Comedy
- Seasons
- 6
- Studio
- NBC
4 Does the 'Community' Movie Have a Release Date?
There is no official release date for the film, but with its current schedule, we can expect the film to come out sometime in mid-to-late 2025. While the movie was initially expected to premiere in late 2023 or 2024, the fact that filming won't start until 2025 means we'll likely have to wait a lot longer. As mentioned, Peacock and Sony Pictures TV secured the rights to the movie, which means it'll be available to stream on the NBC Universal platform. There have been no plans mentioned yet of releasing the movie to cinemas. All six seasons are available for your streaming pleasure on Peacock.
3 Who Is Returning for the 'Community' Movie?
The exciting announcement of the movie in September 2022 involved McHale first revealing a majority of the returning cast members by tagging them on his social media announcement post. The members set to reprise their roles include Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi, Ken Jeong, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Jim Rash as the characters of Jeff Winger, Britta Perry, Annie Edison, Abed Nadir, Ben Chang, Shirley Bennett, and Dean Craig Pelton remained on the show right till the final sixth season. The cast went further on to post the same announcement to their accounts to confirm their involvement.
In late June 2023, Joel McHale confirmed that Donald Glover would be returning for the movie, after much speculation on whether or not his busy schedule would allow for it. Glover, who played Troy Barnes on the show, was not among the cast members initially announced to be returning, but has since revealed his involvement with the project. The prolific actor, director, and musician was an original cast member of the show but left in Season 5.
Glover confirmed his involvement in April 2023, in an interview with GQ Magazine, saying:
"The Community movie, there’s some progress on it. We’re supposed to be shooting it soon. Haven’t seen a script. In true Dan (Harmon) fashion, will probably get it on the first day. But yeah, it’s supposed to be happening. I know just as much about it as you do."
On the Let's Talk Off Camera podcast with Kelly Ripa, McHale said the following about Glover's return:
"Donald's coming back and that's really important. The fact that Donald's gonna do it, that was the big piece. But I think everyone's coming back. I mean, so far we're pretty good. And I think that will happen. If not then, you know, Donald will be there."
However, one key cast member who left the series early and will most definitely not return is Chevy Chase. The chances of Chase returning are more unlikely due to the death of his character Pierce Hawthorne. Additionally, the 2013 fallout between the actor and the show's creator behind the scenes suggests that the cast will most likely be able to carry on without him.
In terms of the crew, Harmon has been confirmed to return as the writer for the film despite the tumultuous relationship he had with the series, which included his exit as showrunner during Season 4 (only to return on the subsequent fifth and final seasons). Andrew Guest (Suburgatory) is also involved, co-writing the screenplay. There has been no official announcement yet of a director.
2 When Does the 'Community' Movie Start Filming?
McHale previously stated in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live that the movie will potentially start filming in summer 2023, specifically, in June. However, the production was delayed indefinitely as a result of the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. McHale revealed the information in an interview with Collider's Tania Hussain saying, 'I’m not exactly sure, but I’m guessing it’s not going to start on time.' He also expressed his support for the strike stating:
I don’t say this lightly, but I stand with the WGA, and there’s no doubt that pay has gone down 23% since 2007, and that needs to change.
At the start of June 2023, McHale confirmed the delay and said that everyone involved would get back to work on the project "when this strike is over".
"That was a bummer, because we were getting very close. But at the same time, I’m a thousand billion percent behind the writers. The writers need to be paid," the actor told TVLine, adding that "when this strike is over, we’ll come back and we’ll make it. And I am sure that [series creator] Dan [Harmon] will put in 12 jokes addressing the fact it took [this long to come together]. But we’ll get there. It just may take a little while."
In December 2023, in another interview with Tania Hussain, McHale gave an update on the filming for the movie, saying:
“We shot it, we shot it yesterday. Great. Uh, yeah, it only took a few hours. I couldn’t believe it. Um, it’s gonna be amazing. Well, you know, we were shooting it last summer and then, so I, I think as long as we can start getting all these schedules together, that it will probably be next summer. I mean, that is what I am, that’s what I hope for. You know, it’s everything. Everyone’s in and we’ve signed the thing. I mean, everyone’s so, uh, so yeah, we just need to make the time.”
1 So What Will the 'Community' Movie Be About?
The official plot is still under tight wraps, but Harmon promises that a lot of work and consideration has gone into crafting the potential story for the film. Since 2021, he has voiced the major challenges that would come with approaching the movie's plot such as the large time gap since the finale and coming up with a plausible reason to bring the core group of characters back together. Only last December, Harmon revealed some information on Six Seasons and a Podcast regarding what has been ruled out for the movie, which unfortunately included one of the show's iconic running gags of paintball.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in February 2024, Glover hinted at the movie's plot, including an interesting detail about Pudi's Abed, saying:
"Yeah, [Dan Harmon] told me what he wanted, and I was like, 'This sounds great.' It's a college reunion, but Abed [Danny Pudi's character] is like this big director now, and basically this is his magnum opus. I'm like 'This sounds f---ing tight.'"
A week later, in an interview with Variety, Harmon elaborated on Glover's comments, saying the script wasn't finished, but was close to it, saying:
“I can confirm Donald Glover’s report that I told him the script was done, but I will also say Donald’s sources are so unreliable because the script is always ‘almost done,'”
However, Harmon played coy about the plot of the movie, saying "What can I tell you about it — it’s set on the campus of Greendale Community College. I’m super excited about it, and we’re almost done.”
In April 2024, Brie confirmed that the script had been finished, saying, "We got a script — you heard it here first.” When asked to give further details, Brie responded by saying "I’ve read the script, and it’s so funny.”
In July 2024, McHale revealed that filming for the Community movie had been pushed back yet again, but did confirm that the production has been fully funded, citing that scheduling has been an issue, saying:
"It will be. And I don’t have a definitive update because we thought for a moment it was going to all happen this year, and then it didn’t. But we have the money, and that is a huge step. And hopefully, people still want to see it. And Peacock’s paying for it. And so I can’t wait to do it. I’ll say vaguely next year. How about that?"
While the word "scheduling" may make some immediately think that Glover is to blame for the delay, McHale said that it was his busy schedule that is currently holding up the production, not Glover's, saying "If it’s anybody’s fault, it’s my schedule on this one. It’s not his at all. He was available."
McHale has been staying busy, he plays the lead role on the popular FOX sitcom Animal Control which was renewed for a third season back in February 2024.
Glover also denied his culpability for the delay in an interview with Deadline in April 2024, saying:
“Everybody is hating on me on the internet and it’s not me! They’re like, ‘We know that you’re the reason.’ Maybe I was last year — maybe — but not this time.”
Overall, there's still some major excitement and endless possibilities for what the movie will include while it remains in the early stages of development.
