“Six Seasons and a Movie” has been the famous rallying cry from the Community fan base, and since the series did run for six seasons, there’s still hope that a Community movie is on the way. Dan Harmon, creator of Community, as well as the widely popular cartoon Rick and Morty, recently appeared on Vulture’s Good One podcast and revealed that he is still actively thinking about the Community movie.
One of Harmon’s biggest concerns regarding the creation of a Community movie is the target audience.
“Here’s the biggest philosophical question: Are you supposed to service a mythical new viewer? The obvious, dogmatic, practical, off-the-street answer is like, No, you don’t. It’s fan service. Why would there be a Community movie? Who do you think is going to walk in off the street and buy popcorn and sit and watch a Community movie like that? They deserve to be punished. Why are they doing that?
Harmon also talked about trying to make a movie that works for die-hard fans, as well as for newcomers.
“Saying that that person doesn’t exist is a lot different from asking yourself structurally if you’re supposed to design the movie for them, because there’s a new viewer inside of all of us. If every Marvel movie started with inside references to all 90 other Marvel movies, even if you had seen all of them — even if on one level you’d be like, This is the greatest Marvel movie ever because all of the movies are in here — I think that a part of your brain would be going, Yeah, but it’s kind of not a good movie for this reason. It’s just speaking in gibberish. What does this mean? I exist in that camp like you? Formalistically, you owe a movie that I think the fans can not only enjoy, but they can stand back and go, You know, the crazy thing about this Community movie is that if you didn’t know there was a show, this is an insanely good movie. There’s a reason to watch it and then definitely watch the series because now you’re like, Holy crap. I don’t know if that’s arrogance, pretentiousness, responsibility, self-deprecation, torture. I can’t get myself out of that camp.”
Community seemed to be perpetually on the brink of cancellation for the majority of the show’s lifespan. The series encountered problem after problem, from parting ways with actor Chevy Chase, losing Harmon for the entirety of the fourth season, and a sixth season that aired on the failed Yahoo! streaming service.
On the podcast, Harmon also pointed out one more large, daunting issue in creating a Community movie – the six-year time lapse since the final season aired. Given that the premise of the show was a rag-tag group of community college students, it certainly seems difficult to create a plot that’s missing one of the core identities of the show. When pressed about it, Harmon had this to say:
“Do you want to see these people play dress-up in their old outfits and come in and go, ‘Look at me. Meep meep, moop moop. Look what I used to do’? Yes, to some degree; no, to some degree. Contrary to that, do you want to see these people not doing that and coming in in pantsuits and going, ‘I’m an adult now… Remember when we did this?'”
Despite the numerous issues that Harmon must tackle to bring a Community movie to the big screen, he remains positive that it is still a strong possibility. Many members of the cast have voiced their willingness to reprise their role on the show again, keeping fans’ hope alive. After all, they seemed eager to join together for a virtual Community table read that served as a fundraiser.
All six seasons of Community are currently available for streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video.
via Collider