What we know so far about the ‘Community’ movie: cast, platform, date

Cult classic comedy series Community is set to return next year with both a sixth season of the hugely popular show and a the long-awaited movie. Peacock announced on Friday that work had begun on Community the Movie, fulfilling the creators’ #SixSeasonsAndAMovie prophecy.

The phrase began as a joke during the early seasons of the show, which reportedly came close to being cancelled on more than one occasion. However a statement from NBC confirmed that the iconic show is returning, seven years after the latest series was released.

“‘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,” said NBC Universal Television’s Chairman of Entertainment, Susan Rovner.

“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.”

What do we know about Community the Movie?

So far all the loyal fans really know is what has been confirmed in a few press releases. Streaming service Peacock looks set to be the non-exclusive home of the new show, but it will also likely be available on other platforms in the future. Currently, all six seasons of Community are available on Nulu, Netflix and Prime Video.

The film will be written by the show’s creator, Dan Harmon, who is joined by Andrew Guest, and executive producers Joel McHale, Russ Krasnoff and Gary Foster. Guest’s involvement will be particularly popular, given that he has previously written fan-favourite episodes “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” and “A Fistful of Paintballs”.

We know that the movie is slated to be released in 2023 but beyond that the creators are keeping things under wraps. As far as the plot goes, all that the press release reveals is that the storyline derives “from the TV series that predicted its own movie.”

What is the cast for Community the Movie?

Since it first aired in 2009 the show has stuck to a core cast of characters, but some have drifted away over the years.

Comedy icon Chevy Chase made a high-profile exit from the show during Season 4, with reports suggesting that he had fallen out with other cast members. He did make a surprise return in the first episode of Season 5 but his character, Pierce, was killed off soon after.

Two others to make more amicable exits from the show’s cast were Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley Bennett) and Donald Glover (Troy Barnes). Glover and Brown both left during Season 5, although Brown did feature in two episodes in the sixth season.

However the six regular cast members from Season 6 are all back for the upcoming movie:

- Joel McHale as Jeff Winger

- Danny Pudi as Abed Nadir

- Alison Brie as Annie Edison

- Gillian Jacobs as Britta Perry

- Jim Rash as Dean Craig Pelton

- Ken Jeong as Ben Chang