Earlier this year, the exciting news that Community was coming back with a movie was somewhat dampened when it appeared that Troy Barnes (Donald Glover) wasn’t included in the returning cast. Now, however, Community co-creator Dan Harmon says that omission was simply a mistake, and that Glover will actually be in the movie after all.
It seemed understandable that Glover wouldn’t return to Community, which originally ran from 2009 to 2015, since the multi-hyphenate has grown increasingly busy with Atlanta and his music career as Childish Gambino in the years since the sitcom’s end. But according to Harmon, who addressed the reboot at a recent Variety Business Managers Breakfast, “For lack of a better word, there was a ball fumbled… [Glover] is down to clown. Man, I would not want to think about making [the movie] without Donald.”
The Community movie is currently being written and will air on Peacock, the streamer attached to NBC, which ran the first five seasons of the original Community show. Harmon also discussed the decision to go with Peacock instead of a bigger name like Amazon at the Variety event, explaining that he’d rather work with someone who connects with him artistically over someone who can make him the most money.
“Is it smart as a creative to go with the place that you think is more solvent? That’s not how a creative should think, you’re supposed to go with your passion, and ultimately, that is what we did,” Harmon said. “We can’t control the marketplace, we can’t control Peacock’s future, so we should ignore that, pretend that all things are equal and go with the thing that makes emotional sense.”
Danny Pudi, Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong have all been confirmed to return for the Community movie, while Chevy Chase and Yvette Nicole Brown will not appear. To celebrate the news of the reboot, we ranked 100 of the series’ musical moments from worst to best.
