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Why It's Not Too Late For A Community Movie (Despite Taking So Long)
It's been seven years since Community ended, and while the fabled movie still hasn't come out, that doesn't mean it would be impossible.

Why It's Not Too Late For A Community Movie (Despite Taking So Long)

Even though it’s been seven years since the show ended, it still isn’t too late for the Community movie to happen. With so much time having gone by since the show ended and everyone having moved on to new projects since, it would make sense that the Community movie, which didn’t even start as a serious project, would end up dead in the water. Nevertheless, there’s still plenty of validity in the project and plenty of reason for people to remain excited about it.

The entire premise of the Community movie stems from season 2, episode 21, “Paradigms of Human Memory,” where Abed used the phrase “six seasons and a movie” in support of the short-lived superhero show The Cape. The entire phrase was just a joke about how unpopular The Cape was, but from Community season 3 onward, the phrase was used repeatedly both in and out of Community to show support for the series as it constantly risked cancellation. When Community ended after six seasons, there was naturally a call for a movie to be made. However, it’s been seven years since the series finale, and no major progress has been made toward a Community movie.

It’s been taking an incredibly long time for a Community movie to happen, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen. Even with all of the time that’s gone by, the original cast and crew behind the show have expressed interest in doing a movie time and time again. Various outside factors such as scheduling and scripting have repeatedly impeded the process, but so long as the cast and crew want it to happen, it won’t be impossible for it to happen.

Why The Community Movie Is Taking So Long

There are a variety of reasons why the Community movie has been taking so long, despite the interest it has garnered from the cast, crew, and especially the fans. For starters, Community was very much a cult hit in that it garnered a dedicated fanbase, despite a lack of general popularity. As previously stated, the entire reason that “six seasons and a movie” caught on was to show support for the series as it teetered on the brink of cancellation with lower and lower numbers every season, with season 4 being considered so bad that the poor quality had to be blamed on an in-universe gas leak. Even if there was support for a movie, especially after Community succeeded in getting a sixth season, the fact of the matter was that Dan Harmon’s Community wasn’t doing well from a technical standpoint, so there was probably the idea that a movie wouldn’t pull in the numbers needed to be worth the investment.

There have also been scheduling and creative conflicts among the cast and crew which have impeded the process. Yvette Nicole Brown left after season 5 to take care of her father, for example, and Donald Glover notably left the show in season 5 to work on projects that offered him more independence as he worked through personal issues (via Hypable), which eventually led to him creating Atlanta. Alison Brie also started acting in the Netflix series GLOW, and Danny Pudi has been busy with both DuckTales and Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest. Most importantly, Dan Harmon himself has had trouble getting a script together, with Harmon saying that his problems with the script were “philosophical” in that he needed to figure out if he could make the movie approachable to anyone who hadn’t seen the show (via Vulture).

Why The Community Movie Is Still Exciting

Even with all of the logistical problems that have plagued the Community movie, the idea of a Community movie is still exciting. With virtually everyone in the main cast bar Chevy Chase having expressed interest in doing the movie, there’s the inherent interest of seeing all of the principal cast members together again after the later seasons saw more and more of the cast members leaving. Donald Glover showing interest especially helps with that because many people believe that Community season 5 and 6 suffered from his lack of involvement, so Troy being in the movie could help elevate the movie to the level of quality Community had at its peak. Joe Russo has also said that he and Anthony Russo would be willing to direct if their schedules would permit (via Collider). In addition to their work with Marvel on Captain America: Civil War and the latest Avengers films, the Russo brothers were behind many iconic episodes of the show such as “Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism” and the two-part paintball war that was the Community season 2 finale. The idea of one or both of Community‘s Russo brothers returning for the movie could add a lot.

There’s also the inherent excitement that can be had from Community getting a movie. For years, both during the show’s run and after it ultimately ended, people have been pushing for an eventual movie to cap off the series. If a movie were to be made, it could serve as a means to providing a payoff for a fan campaign that’s been going on for years. Fan campaigns succeeding in getting something done are extremely rare, so the idea of that happening with Community makes the prospect of a movie all the more engaging.

Will The Community Movie Ever Happen?

With all of that being said, will the Community movie ever happen? At the moment, there isn’t a clear answer that can be given in regards to that. The cast and crew who have been involved with the show have expressed interest in doing a movie time and time again for years, and while the schedules of most of the people who would need to come back have cleared up a lot compared to around the time the show first ended, there’s still the issue of finding a company willing to back the project. Dan Harmon implied as much in 2017 when he talked about speaking with a director with enough weight to make that happen (via Time). If it still hasn’t happened yet, it’s likely been an arduous process to try and make it happen. The NBC sitcom Community, as previously discussed, had declining ratings year after year and only barely managed to get to six seasons, so it would make sense that investing in a movie might seem risky.

That being said, so long as there’s an interest in it from both the fans and the people involved, it will always be possible for a Community movie to happen. Harmon has been working on a script since at least 2021, and with much of the cast and crew wanting to do a movie, it should still be a possibility. As for the fans, Community being put on Netflix has brought interest and awareness of the show to an all-time high. No doubt, they’ll keep pushing for it, and if that persists, Netflix or someone else might see it as worth capitalizing on. Recently, the #RestoreTheSnyderCut movement made Zack Snyder’s Justice League a reality. By that same token, it shouldn’t be impossible for “six seasons and a movie” to eventually lead to a Community movie finally releasing.