Community fans are finally getting six seasons and a movie, as Danny Pudi‘s Abed prophecied more than once over the comedy’s run.
After the show’s official social media pages shared a clip of Pudi’s character uttering the line late on September 29, former stars Joel McHale and Ken Jeong seemed to confirm the potential project by posting a single photo with “… and a movie,” written in Greendale Community College’s blue lettering. Neither performer added context apart from tagging costars, the creator Dan Harmon, as well as Peacock, Sony, and the official Community accounts.
Moments later, Peacock confirmed the film, Community: The Movie, posting, “You’ve been asking @Communitytv fans, and it’s finally time. #sixseasonsandamovieOnPeacock.” Needless to say, the show’s cult following is sure to be losing their minds.
Community ran for six years from 2009 to 2015, premiering originally on NBC and airing for five seasons there before moving to the now-defunct Yahoo! Screen for Season 6. It centered around a group of unlikely friends who band together to get through community college. Among the original stars set to return for the closing chapter are Joel McHale as Jeff Winger, Danny Pudi as Abed Nadir, Alison Brie as Annie Edison, Gillian Jacobs as Britta Perry, Jim Rash as Dean Craig Pelton, and Ken Jeong as Ben Chang.
Dan Harmon is set to helm the picture, writing alongside Andrew Guest. Together, they’re set to executive produce the movie from Sony Pictures Television and Universal Television with McHale, Russ Krasnoff, and Gary Foster. Community: The Movie is missing three original series stars, Donald Glover, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Chevy Chase. Both Glover and Chase departed the series before the end of its run, and Brown cut back on her appearances as the final season arrived.
Along with preparing to bring fans this movie, Peacock is also acquiring the full series in its library on a non-exclusive basis.
“‘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,” said Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “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.”
When TV Insider caught up with McHale ahead of the cast’s table read reunion in 2020, the actor said “Getting a movie made is like building a ship, where it takes time and it takes a lot of effort and it has to be done well or the ship doesn’t get out of the dock. And so now with the pandemic, I know that Dan is still one of the busiest people, but maybe that could happen. I don’t know if that’s good news or bad news, obviously [the pandemic is] hurting every production but maybe it frees up some time to focus on it?”
It seems that Harmon and crew did find the time, and the fans are surely grateful. Let us know what you think of the news in the comments section, below, and catch up on all six seasons before the movie arrives.
Community: The Movie, TBA, Peacock