Community Movie Is Almost Done And We Know Who Is Returning
Long-suffering fans of Community can rejoice! According to a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Community creator Dan Harmon has almost finished the screenplay for the Community movie. Harmon and former Community writer Andrew Guest just need a little more time to tweak things before they can hand in a completed script. Harmon also confirmed that the original cast will all return (except Chevy Chase).
“I don’t want these now-superstar people, like Emmy-winning Donald Glover, who are bothering to gather out of loyalty to this thing, to come back and once again be getting blue pages run down by an intern that totally contradict what they spent all night memorizing. I want to have a veneer of, ‘Here’s your reward.'”
Dan Harmon
Harmon’s goal is to have a script that can be shot as is prior to the start of production. The fickle writer, famous for last-minute script changes, doesn’t want to put the show’s returning cast through the same torture they endured while filming Community the series.
Dan Harmon has nearly finished writing the Community movie, and he confirmed that the main cast (minus Chevy Chase) will all return for the film.
“I don’t want these now-superstar people, like Emmy-winning Donald Glover, who are bothering to gather out of loyalty to this thing, to come back and once again be getting blue pages run down by an intern that totally contradict what they spent all night memorizing,” Harmon admitted to THR.
“I want to have a veneer of, ‘Here’s your reward.’” Harmon continued. The creator— who has been doing some extensive work on himself— further stated that he doesn’t want the returning cast to think that “He’s learned nothing,” or that he still considers the Community actors as nothing more than “cattle.”
The returning cast will include not only the “Emmy-winning Donald Glover,” that Harmon mentioned, but many actors that have since gone on to bigger and better things than starring on an ensemble sitcom—even one as brilliant as Community.
The Community Star That Won’t Return For The Movie
Alison Brie, Joel McHale, Danny Puddi, and the rest of the cast have found post-Community success in all manner of film and television work but are committed to Harmon’s Community movie out of loyalty to the writer and the show that made them. All but one, of course, the cantankerous Chevy Chase.
Most Community fans are familiar with Chase and Harmon’s falling out. Chase was never shy when it came to complaining about the Community creator publically and was even a big part of why Harmon was fired from his own show prior to the production of Season 4.
Chevy Chase’s own exit from the popular sitcom came after the veteran actor allegedly used a racial slur during an angry rant and came to a mutual agreement with NBC to leave the series. Chase’s departure, ironically, led to Harmon coming back to work on his baby for the rest of Community‘s run.
Should some sort of miraculous mending-of-fences occur between Dan Harmon and Chevy Chase, Chase’s inclusion in the Community movie would still almost certainly be a non-starter due to the fact that in the community universe, Pierce, the character Chase played for four seasons, died. On top of that, Harmon has been quoted as saying, “I don’t even know if it’s legal for him to come back.” in regard to Chase’s possible return. Whether Harmon was joking or not has never been made clear.
What Will The Community Movie Be About?
As far as the plot of the upcoming Community movie, Harmon has been mostly mum. All that’s currently known about the project is that, according to Harmon, the film he pitched to buyers before the pandemic was a “Greendale Community College reunion,” implying that the film would revolve around the Community cast assembling once again at Greendale Community College to celebrate a class reunion of some kind.
Knowing Harmon, the plot will most likely take a backseat to whatever hilarious situations and dialogue the writer has come up with to put the cast through.
