Our long national nightmare continues.
Eight months after the study group confirmed that the “and a movie” section of their “six seasons and a movie” promise would come to fruition, the Community movie has hit another setback: The WGA writers strike. Because AMPTP has decided to extend this strike indefinitely, refusing to share any of their stomach-churning profits with the people who wrote the Super Mario Bros. Movie, let alone the thousands of other entertainment professionals who make America’s greatest export possible, the Community movie has been delayed once again.
As if all this wasn’t painful enough, Community’s own Jeff Winger, Joel McHale told Variety the production had “a shooting date coming up” this summer. “I think they were extremely close to—I mean, Dan is somebody that tweaks things, but, obviously, that’s all stopped,” he said. “I think it was pretty darn close.” Though it may have been “close,” McHale acknowledges that maybe there are more important things than a sitcom reunion movie, like ensuring people receive compensation for their labor. “It was close, the shoot date was coming up, and we were all excited to do it, and then the writers strike happened, which obviously put everything on hold, and rightfully so.”
“The writers are asking for very reasonable things,” he continued. “Writers need to be paid properly.” According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, writers being paid adequately, receiving streaming residuals, and ensuring that a generative algorithm mashing old bits of content together to create lousy art won’t take their jobs sits slightly below “the Community movie.”
Announced last year, the Community movie would reunite most of the original cast, including McHale, Alison Brie, Jim Rash, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, and Ken Jeong. However, the rest of the cast remains uncertain. Last November, Dan Harmon said Donald Glover was “down to clown” but that he wasn’t sure if it was “legal for [Chevy Chase] to come back.” As for Yvette Nicole Brown, who did not return for season six so she could care for her ailing father, she “literally [knows] nothing” about the movie. Nevertheless, Harmon has also said that there’s nothing official about who won’t be returning, so maybe there’s a chance that even James Brolin could pop in as Winger’s dad.
The Community movie was heading to Peacock before this latest setback, and they may have even picked a director; though, McHale is keeping a tight lip on that. “I know who wants to do it, and we’re talking to and is interested and engaged.” Community had quite a stable of then-up-and-coming directors, such as the Russo Brothers and longtime Fast And Furious series director Justin Lin, behind the camera across its six seasons. So we can only assume that Danny Pudi is directing the film, in character, as Abed Nadir under the “Cool Abed Films” imprint.
