Community is a much-loved series that aired between 2009 and 2015 and has always carried the tagline “Six Seasons and a Movie” since its second season.
Seven years after the end of the series, Community finally got the green light for a feature film.
In mid-2022, news surfaced of a possible upcoming movie, but no one knew when it would come.
On September 30, it was finally revealed that it had been picked up.
The news
The internet exploded when several stars started posting the prophetic phrase “And a movie” online.
It was revealed that Peacock commissioned a film about the underdog study group Greendale, founded by Dan Harmon.
The announcement revealed that the original cast members would be returning.
Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Ken Jeong, and Jim Rash have been confirmed to return as Greendale saviors.
Original cast members Yvette Nicole Brown and Donald Glover have yet to be confirmed to return.
Comedy legend Chevy Chase may not return as Pierce Hawthorne after the fourth season’s fallout, but anything is possible.
Behind the scenes
Aside from the film, Peacock managed to secure non-competing rights to air the sixth season of Community.
Susan Rovener, president of NBCUniversal’s entertainment content and streaming, shared her enthusiasm for the project, saying:
“‘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.”
Six seasons and a movie
The Community Movie has gotten more attention since Dan Harmon said it was possible to make it work, and Joel McHale’s tweet from Sept. 30 confirmed that it may be on the way.
McHale tagged his co-stars Peacock, Sony, Community and Gillian Anderson (accidentally because Gillian Jacobs didn’t have an account) and posted a photo with the hopeful words, “And a movie.”
The full line was first said by Abed Nadir (Pudi) in the second season episode, Paradigms of Human Memory.
The episode took a take of the “clip shows” trope in older shows, which usually recycle old clips to save money.
Instead, in Paradigms of Human Memory, they showed new clips of past events.
In one of the clips, Abed disguises himself as Cape (from the titular TV show) and accidentally spills Jeff Winger’s (McHale’s) lunch.
Jeff yells, “The show’s gonna last three weeks!” To which Abed replies: “Six seasons and a movie!”
The phrase became a rallying cry for community fans around the world, especially when the show was temporarily canceled after its fifth season.
Yahoo managed to pick it up and fulfill half of the prophecy.
Progress of the film’s development over the years
Community creator Dan Harmon said a movie would be made as early as 2016.
Over the years, he’s regularly updated his fans and hinted that a movie is in the works.
In August of this year, Harmon announced that he had pitched a Community film, and Peacock seemed interested.
Although he founded Community, Dan Harmon is only on board to write the film and serve as its executive producer.
He is joined in the role of executive producer by Joel McHale, Andrew Guest, Russ Krassnoff, and Gary Foster.
The film hasn’t found a director yet.
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