Original reporting by Melissa Miller.
The prophecy foretold six seasons and a movie, and now that will come to pass. The Community movie is coming to Peacock! Thanks to a tweet from series star Joel McHale and a report in Variety, we finally know it’s happening. We also know that series creator Dan Harmon will write and produce the movie. However, with the recent writers’ strike, things were on hold for a while. McHale revealed to Variety that Harmon and co-writer Andrew Guest were almost done with the script and had a director in mind before everything came on a halt in May. Harmon, McHale, and other members of the WGA were on strike because the union did not reach a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over many issues, including streaming residuals. However, now that the writer and actor strikes have resolved, it sounds like the Community movie is back on track.
Community star Alison Brie chimed in to share, “We got a script, which is a major update. We got a script — you heard it here first.” She added of the Community movie. “I’ve read the script, and it’s so funny.” Sounds like good news to us.
And in the latest Community movie update, the film scored a tax credit from the California Film Commission to shoot in the state. According to The Wrap, the expenditure is for $16.3 million and the film will get $3.3 million back as part of the tax credit program. We love to continue to hear such great news.
The Latest Updates on the Community Movie
Creator Dan Harmon also noted to Variety in February that the script was almost done. He shared, “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. 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.”
Meanwhile, star Joel McHale also shared that the script for the film is done as far as he knows, adding a further update about the movie’s filming. Deadline notes, “McHale said it’s his belief that the Community movie will shoot “this year.” He’ll be “shocked,” he said, if it doesn’t.” And McHale offered, “I really do think it’s happening this year, and probably next week. It’s basically working around Donald [Glover]’s schedule.”
The Cast of the Community Movie
Casting news isn’t official, but McHale tagged fellow stars Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Yvette Nicole Brown, Danny Pudi, and Ken Jeong in his post, as well as Gillian Anderson (but we assume he meant to tag Gillian Jacobs, who played Britta). The series finale gave our beloved characters a nudge towards their next steps in life, but we’ll be perfectly happy to see them all back together at Greendale Community College. Three cheers for the Community movie.
Six Season and a Movie
The show fulfilled half of Abed’s prophecy of “six seasons and a movie” with a final season on Yahoo! after five seasons on NBC. Its 110 episodes, all named like community college course titles, that mostly hit the mark of comedic and meta, takes on adult friendships. We cheered for the tight-knit study group through all the years of puppets, paintball, and pillow forts.
Community gained new popularity, and talk of the movie heated up when the show landed on Netflix in 2020. But it’s been part of the show’s lexicon since long before the series finale in 2015. It’s always a fun rewatch, and it’s never too late to watch the series for the first time.
We can’t wait to hear more official news for the Community movie. Will we finally learn what happened to Troy Barnes after he sailed off with LeVar Burton and was never heard from again? Donald Glover did join in when the cast reunited for a virtual table read in the early days of the pandemic. Happily, Dan Harmon has confirmed Glover would return for the movie. Glover himself also recently told The Hollywood Reporter he was still planning on the Community movie, 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**king tight.”
Maybe we’re not living in Abed’s darkest timeline after all.
Originally published on November 4, 2022.
