Dan Harmon has some exciting news for community fans who are still waiting for the movie they were promised.
While talking to Newsweek to promote season 6 of his animated show Rick and MortyHarmon offered some “concrete” evidence of community the film’s existence and how far along it is in the making process.
The appearance of the cult community starred the likes of Joel McHale, Donald Glover, Alison Brie, Ken Jeong and Chevy Chase, and thanks to a huge fan movement, it stayed on the air for six seasons. The slogan “six seasons and a movie”, which originated in the show, is often used in support of communitybut fans have now waited more than seven years for that final part of the prophecy.
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“Now I will say that it is a matter of “when”. I have been so careful about [saying] that,” Harmon said Newsweek.
“It would have been correct three years ago to say ‘it’s a matter of when, not if.’ The wheels have been in motion for so long,” he said.
The last episode of community, which premiered on NBC in 2009 and ended up on the now-defunct Yahoo! The screen in 2015 ended with the words, “…And a movie.” Since then, Harmon and every cast member have been asked when that movie is coming.
Expanding on why he’s tried to be weird in the past, Harmon explained that it’s because the release timeline might not be the answer fans want to hear.
“The fan you Instagram for every day communityhow can you tell them, ‘yeah, it’s definitely going to happen, but it could be one to eight years from now’ — that’s the way the industry works, especially when you factor in pandemics and what not.
“How about this for a concrete thing?” Harmon teased, “There’s a blueprint for it. There’s a product put together and released to the world. I think that’s how real it is.”
Acknowledging how anything he says can affect the emotion community fans, he continued, “That’s probably enough to make people angry when [there’s nothing] a year from now. That still doesn’t mean there will be a movie tomorrow. It means that there will definitely be one”.
Alison Brie, who played Annie Eddison throughout of the community six seasons, also discussed community movie with Newsweek recently. “I’m crossing my fingers like everybody else. I hope it happens,” Brie said, admitting how embarrassing it must have been.
Harmon expanded on what the situation looks like for fans, comparing it to being in the driver’s seat and watching his kids starve in the back of the car.
“It just feels like psychological torture, from a fan’s point of view, to keep looking in the back seat of a pickup truck and say ‘who wants McDonald’s?’ And just keep driving down the highway,” he said. “I don’t want to be guilty of causing that feeling. It just takes so long sometimes.”
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community fans have been given hope for a movie in recent years. During the pandemic, most actors turned to an online reunion table. In September 2021 McHale, who played Jeff Winger, shared his hope that a film would happen, while in June 2021 Jeong, aka Ben Chang, expressed his desire to return to the role in an interview with Newsweek.
Harmon and the cast and crew of Rick and Morty were talking to Newsweek ahead of the launch of Season 6 of Adult Swimming on September 4, 2022. We’ll have more Rick and Morty content coming soon.