Back in August came the good news – the acclaimed sitcom “Community,” from “Rick and Morty” co-creator Dan Harmon, would be revived from cancellation after six seasons and turned into a direct-to-Peacock film.
Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, Keith David and Ken Jeong are all set to reprise their roles, with Donald Glover also expected to return for the project, which has Andrew Guest co-writing the script.
Whilst story details are unknown, one thing Harmon wants to make clear is that we shouldn’t expect this to serve as a ‘greatest hits’ package with homages or callbacks to some of the original series’ most famous episodes from the paintball one to the Dungeons & Dragons one.
Speaking with Six Seasons and a Podcast, Harmon says one reason they’re not doing a paintball episode again is the rise in school shootings. The optics were not good back when it originally aired and are worse now: “You’re running around with guns in a school, which was never a good idea on TV even back then.” He goes on to say:
“It’s one of the first things to rule out because it’s the first thing off the top of your head, and that’s an issue with the ‘Community’ movie concept…We tried to do a bunch more paintballs, and they were all perfectly wonderful things to do, but would anything ever capture the joy of the original paintball episode?
Harmon also confirms that Greendale won’t face another potential shutdown, a major storyline around the show’s ending. He also says they won’t be using anything so cliche as a reason for this cast of characters to come together again – though why they will reunite is remaining under wraps for now:
“You’re not gonna do anything terribly clever with using the school’s demise or resurrection as a device because you don’t want too much of your movie to be spent unrecognizable… there’s a reason to get together, and there’s a reason they have to stay together.”
Harmon writes, and executive produces alongside Andrew Guest, McHale, Russ Krasnoff, and Gary Foster. There’s no word when production will begin, let alone a potential release date.