For years, it was a rallying cry: “Six seasons and a movie!” And while Dan Harmon’s beloved nerd-centric sitcom Community fulfilled the first half of that mantra against all the odds – from the Season 4 ‘gas-leak year’, to its resurrection on Yahoo! Screen after it was cancelled by NBC – it never got that fated movie. But now, five years since the show officially came to an end, the showrunner has hinted at ‘conversations’ about that long-mooted Community movie.
Speaking to TheWrap, Harmon spoke about renewed interest in the show since it was recently added to the Netflix catalogue, and said he’s “very, very excited” about the near future. “I can tell people for sure that the enthusiasm for Community, both for all of this time and the resurgence of it [on Netflix], there’s always an aspect of that affects the marketplace,” he said. “And when the marketplace gets affected, conversations happen. And when conversations happen, things happen.” He added: “I mean, when you’re part of the Community family, you learn never to raise expectations, keep ‘em nice and low and then be pleasantly surprised. So I can say that there are conversations happening that people would want to be happening and that I’m very, very excited about the coming months.”
While the Community movie didn’t come to fruition during the show’s original run, so many of the people involved went on to major things in the years since – the continued rise of Alison Brie and Donald Glover, who was absent in the final season, regular directors Joe and Anthony going off to make the biggest movie of all time, and Harmon co-creating internet favourite Rick And Morty. All of those things likely add to the viability of a Community movie, and possibly complicate the possibility of making it happen.
Could Netflix stump up the funds to finally let Harmon and the cast make the Community movie at last? Could the Russos use their post-Avengers clout to make it happen, or even step up behind the camera? Could Glover be convinced to somehow return? And if they do make it happen, how will they make sure they don't Britta it? Stay tuned for any impending lockdown miracles.