Community Is Finally Getting Its Movie

The offbeat NBC sitcom Community is how the world found out Dan Harmon existed. The show took a premise that was deceptively safe for the broadcast-viewing masses (a community college study group) and then piled on Harmon’s brand of nerdy insanity, twisting tropes, and high-concept ideas like a throw of the dice that split one episode into six different timelines. Harmon would expand on this formula with Adult Swim‘s Rick And Morty, a much more successful show that finally won him the “Right To Do Whatever I Want In Hollywood” ticket.

One recurring joke, introduced in the  third season, was the motto “Six seasons and a movie,” spouted by Abed when he expressed his fandom for the short-lived NBC series The Cape. The joke was that this show had already been cancelled by the time the episode aired, but the phrase became a rallying cry from fans of Community who desired the show to last precisely that long. And it came close! NBC got rid of the series after five seasons, but Yahoo was experimenting with streaming at that time and picked up Community for one more season, at literally the final day its renewal was possible.

That took care of the six seasons. But what about the movie? The former cast and crew have been giving wishy-washy answers over the years, but today they finally confirmed the long-promised feature is finally a go. In cahoots are Harmon as well as original stars Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong. Donald Glover, who left the series two-thirds of the way into its run, is a big question mark (he isn’t confirmed at this time). Neither, oddly, is Yvette Nicole Brown, who has worn her time on this series as a badge of pride. The one thing we can say for certain is that Chevy Chase definitely WON’T be back.

“‘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,” says Susan Rovner, chairman of entertainment content for 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.”

The Community movie will premiere on Peacock next year. The show itself can currently be seen on Netflix, minus one episode (that happens to be one of their best) because Jeong covered his face in black paint to play an elf for a D&D game.