The Star Trek Legend That Almost Had A Leading Role In Community

The Community creator made this revelation in an AMA via Reddit. The Star Trek actor wasn’t the only star Harmon was eyeing either. Fred Willard and John Cleese were also reportedly being considered. Willard would eventually play Pierce Hawthorne (kind of) in a cameo for a Season 6 episode. 

So how did Community pivot from Star Trek’s lovable captain to Chevy Chase? While Dan Harmon had his plans, Sony allegedly sought out Chevy Chase. At the time of initial casting, Chase was drawn in by Harmon’s writing.

Considering Chevy Chase was at the heart of tension and behind-the-scenes drama between his co-stars and Dan Harmon, casting Star Trek’s Patrick Stewart instead could’ve made a difference in the series’ ultimate downfall. While these issues and NBC’s cancellation of Community were never truly correlated, fans of the sitcom know that the drama played a factor.

Dan Harmon and Chevy Chase reportedly never saw eye to eye, always butting heads. The National Lampoons actor eventually called it quits, and Harmon was heard rallying the cast and crew to shout “f*** you, Chevy” during the departure party for the star in a leaked recording.

This was likely the first of many issues NBC had with Harmon, which led to his firing by NBC before the start of the fourth season. Community Season 4 suffered without its creator. The characters even referred to it later in the series as the gas leak season, as everyone would rather forget it ever existed.

To further illustrate how much smoother things may have run with the Star Trek legend over Chevy Chase, many fans fear that Donald Glover’s departure from the series was due to his issues working with Chase. Glover has been open and honest about his mistreatment at the hands of Chase, stating that his older co-star treated him poorly and called him racial slurs.

Knowing all this, it’s easy to see how things could have turned out differently for Community if the Star Trek legend had been cast as Pierce. Picard’s Star Trek co-stars and other prestigious actors have given nothing but praise to the 84-year-old actor over the decades. And while it might seem like an unusual role for Patrick Stewart, the actor proved his range in 2017’s Logan, showing he could play a humorous and cantankerous old man.

Still, even with the horrific allegations against Chevy Chase on the set of Community, I can’t imagine a world where the Star Trek Captain could have pulled off Pierce Hawthorne as well as Chase did. If Chevy Chase is as difficult to work with as many in Hollywood describe him, then he was essentially playing himself on the show.

Source: Reddit