Dan Harmon Still Working on Community Movie

Community Creator 'Trying' To Get Movie Made With Big-Name Directors

Published Nov 21, 2017

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Community creator Dan Harmon has revealed that he and former series directors the Russo Brothers and Justin Lin still talk about how to make a Community movie a reality. "Six seasons and a movie" became a rallying cry for fans of the cult comedy series during its days at NBC, and now that the show is long past its sixth season, all that remains is to wrap things up with a big-screen feature.

Community began life as a hip one-camera comedy centered around the adventures of a group of losers attending community college, but grew under the guidance of showrunner Dan Harmon to become a self-aware meta-sitcom, equally adept at deconstructing TV tropes, firing off knowing pop culture references and exploring the foibles of its lovable misfit characters (all while exploiting Harmon's beloved story circle theory). The show's cultish fanbase enjoyed mocking NBC suits who clashed with self-described "nerd barbarian" Harmon almost as much as they enjoyed the show itself, and thanks to their loyalty and meme-ing, the series miraculously ended up lasting for six seasons with the final one streaming on Yahoo! after NBC decided they'd had enough.

Speaking to The Wrap, Dan Harmon revealed that he is still working to make that dreamed-about Community movie happen, and regularly discusses the matter with several big-name Hollywood directors who used to work on the show. Harmon said:

“I keep having conversations with the kinds of people that could make it happen. The Russo brothers moved from ‘Community’ to becoming industry shapers. So did one of our most popular directors, Justin Lin, who directed the first paintball episode.”

Tory Barnes smiling in a promotional photo for Community

The Russo Brothers directed many of the most popular Community episodes, including the pilot, before going on to make Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War and the Fast and Furious series and Star Trek: Beyond. Harmon says he talks to Lin frequently:

“I hope I’m not talking out of school by saying that. I’ll get together with him every once in a while, or we’ll have dinner, and we’re talking — we keep trying to figure out how to do this.”

With so much heavyweight Hollywood talent backing the idea, it seems almost certain that a Community movie will one day happen, fulfilling the dreams of every Community fan who ever tweeted anything mean at NBC suits with the #sixseasonsandamovie hashtag. Also central to any Community movie project would be securing the participation of cast member Donald Glover, who left in the middle of season 5 to pursue his rap career as Childish Gambino, essentially his role as young Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Less important than Glover is Chevy Chase, who famously made life miserable for Dan Harmon and everyone else during his time on Community as a less-than-willing comic foil to his younger cast-mates. Original cast Danny Pudi and Joel McHale talked recently about their confidence that a movie will happen, further stoking hopes of a Greendale reunion.