is finally fulfilling its promise of “Six seasons and a movie” as Peacock announced plans to revive the beloved sitcom as a feature film, with the majority of the original cast returning.
Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong will all be back for Community: The Movie, with series creator Dan Harmon also onboard for the film.
Community — about a group of students of varying ages at Greendale Community College — originally ran from 2009 to 2013 on NBC, quickly gaining a cult following and acclaimed reviews (albeit low ratings).
The mantra “Six seasons and a movie” harkens back to dialogue from a Season 2 episode about an unrelated show, but eventually, it became the official hashtag of Community’s diehard audience after the series ended.
Now, seven years after the sixth and final season of Community streamed on Yahoo! Screen, the Greendale gang is reuniting, although without a trio of key co-stars: School’s still out for Chevy Chase and Donald Glover, who left the series around Season 5, as well as Yvette Nicole Brown, who was only a part-timer in Season 6.
Both Glover — who’s likely busy with a ton of his own projects, as himself and Childish Gambino — and Brown stoked fans’ hopes for a larger reunion on the movie front when the cast did a pandemic-era virtual table read for charity in May 2020. At the time, Glover expressed interest in reprising the role of Troy but doubted a Community movie would actually get greenlit.
“We can’t make movies right now,” Glover said. “Watching it now, I’m like, ‘Oh, this show’s really punk.’ Really subversive and like kind of punk. We had so much fun and now I’m like, ‘I want to watch this show again, like it was brand-new.’” Alas, Glover and Brown were not included in Peacock’s announcement Friday.
In addition to the movie, Peacock also has acquired Community’s entire 110-episode run for the streaming service. Community: The Movie‘s release date has not yet been set.
“‘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,” Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said in a statement. “We’re incredibly grateful that 15 years later, we are able to deliver fans this promised movie.”