Six seasons and a movie: it was the slogan originally exclaimed by Community character Abed Nadir in reference to how long he hoped NBC’s The Cape would last, and it was later adopted by the show’s fanbase. Community managed to accomplish the six seasons part thanks to a shift to the now-defunct Yahoo Screen for its final season, and in September 2022, it was announced that a Community movie is finally moving forward. Among the actors returning for this exclusive flick for Peacock subscribers are Gillian Jacobs and Donald Glover, and with the latter having left Community early into Season 5, the former opened up to CinemaBlend about finally getting to reteam with him.
Although Glover’s name wasn’t included in the cast lineup from the original Community movie announcement, series creator Dan Harmon, who’s co-writing the film’s script with Andrew Guest, said last October that he expected Glover to be back based on “word of mouth.” Then in June, Joel McHale, who plays Jeff Winger, confirmed Glover would indeed be back for this next Community chapter, so when I had the opportunity to chat with Jacobs prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, I asked her if she was looking forward to re-exploring the dynamic between Britta Perry and Troy Barnes. She shared her thoughts thusly:
I mean, how lucky am I? Think about these casts that we’re talking about in this conversation. Yes, but also, everybody else on the show. I’m a very fortunate person in that I’ve gotten to work with some of the most talented people, and they’ve made me better. I feel like I learned so much about comedy from being in scenes with Donald, so I’m looking forward to learning more from Donald when we get to work together again.
After being a series regular for Community’s first four seasons, Donald Glover only stuck around for the first five episodes of Season 5, with “Geothermal Escapism” seeing Troy embarking to sail around the world with LeVar Burton for a year so that he could receive the Hawthorne Wipes shares, which were valued at around $14.3 million, Chevy Chase’s Pierce Hawthrone left him after he died. That was the last time viewers saw Troy, although a news report in "Analysis of Cork-Based Networking" shared that pirates had abducted Burton and a “non-celebrity” in the Gulf of Mexico. Fortunately, we now know that Troy’s ok, although how he’ll reunite with his Greendale friends remains to be seen.
There was also a period during Community when Britta and Troy were dating, and while things didn’t work out for them on the romantic front, they still cared for each other deeply by the time Troy left. Following his departure from Community, Glover’s profile rose significantly thanks to starring in movies like Spider-Man: Homecoming, Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Lion King, and launching TV shows like Atlanta, Swarm and the upcoming Mr and Mrs. Smith, not to mention continuing his musical career as rapper Childish Gambino. As Jacobs shared with CinemaBlend, she learned a lot about comedy from working with Glover on Community, so just with everyone else confirmed for the movie, she’s looking forward to spending more time with him whenever this project does begin rolling cameras.
During my conversation with Gillian Jacobs, which included discussing her guest appearance in The Bear Season 2’s intense sixth episode, I also asked her what what she was looking forward to most about revisiting this major chapter of her career, especially with not having played Britta now for nearly a decade. She responded:
It is one of those rare special shows… it only seems to sort of grow, you know? In the viewership, in people’s awareness of it, in people’s love and appreciation. Because as many as we had, and thank you so much for being day one on it, I feel like a lot of people have discovered the show in the last few years. I don’t know how that will affect the doing of it, the actual acting of it, but I just can’t believe that this show is still around. And yet, I can because we always knew it was a special, wonderful show. It’s just really gratifying to feel like people are still finding and enjoying and loving the show.
Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover and Joel McHale will be joined in the Community movie by Danny Audi, Alison Brie, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong, and it’s possible other familiar faces will return too. According to McHale, the plan is for filming to begin in mid-2024, meaning it will be a long time until we learn what it is that brings these characters back together at Greendale Community College. Fans will simply have to suffice for now with being able to stream Community with either a Netflix subscription or Hulu subscription.
As soon as more concrete details about the Community movie trickle in, CinemaBlend will pass them along. Until then, use our 2023 TV schedule to keep track of what shows are currently airing or will arrive in the coming months.
