They always promised the show would have six seasons and a movie. And darn it, they are going to do it.
Peacock announced today that Community is finally getting the movie that it always vowed to fans was going to happen. The press release confirms “original stars Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong will reunite” for the project, and that “the movie will come from original series creator Dan Harmon, executive producer Andrew Guest, and from studios Sony Pictures Television and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.”
Here was NBCUniversal’s Susan Rovner’’ statement on the news:
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.
While most of the show’s core cast of lovable misfits at a Colorado community college are back for the film, several Community cast members are not mentioned in the press release. Neither Donald Glover nor Yvette Nicole Brown were announced as part of the ensemble; both were regular cast members on the series’ first five seasons on NBC, although neither returned (at least as full-time characters) during Community’s final episodes, which debuted on the short-lived streaming service Yahoo! Screen. (Chevy Chase appeared on the show’s first four season, but his character was killed off after Chase used a racial slur on set, upsetting members of the crew and cast.)
Although never a top draw in the ratings, Community was a perennial critical favorite during its run on NBC from 2009 to 2014, and it proved to be a major breakthrough for several members of the cast, who went on to even bigger film and TV projects. It was also a launching pad for some of its behind the scenes talent as well. (Supposedly, the Russo brothers got the job directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier on the strength of their work on Community.)
No release date for the movie has been announced so far, but as part of the deal, Peacock will also get the rights to stream the six seasons of Community. That’s going to make one heck of a marathon some day.
