The announcement of a “Community” movie by Peacock and Sony Pictures TV the other day was celebrated, but it was hard not to notice some glaring absentees from the cast list.
Chevy Chase not being there is understandable, but the lack of both original cast members Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown does put a small dent in the appeal of the new entry.
Or maybe not. Creator Dan Harmon tells Variety at New York Comic Con today that others could still pop in as well, even if only for brief appearances:
“I think that Donald [Glover] is coming, based on word of mouth, but it’s just the deal isn’t official or wasn’t official. It would be difficult to really commit to doing this thing without Donald.
So I believe he is coming back. I think if there are names missing from a list, it’s because the names that are on the list, their deals are agreed upon enough that it’s OK to say they are on the list, and anybody that’s not on a list, it’s just not the case yet. So there is nothing official about anybody being out.”
Indeed Brown has been posting enthusiastically about the “Community” movie on her social media accounts but hasn’t yet addressed her involvement at this time.
Original stars who are confirmed to return include Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong. Harmon also revealed that several streamers were interested, but they went with Peacock not just because of the legacy connection with NBC:
They’ve really expressed that in the ways of how they’re very, very interested in promoting the movie and letting us make it the way we want to. They were able to express those things in a contract that means something… we want to make something great and let everybody know when it’s on and stuff like that”
Harmon was at the event to promote his new animated series “Krapopolis,” which has also been renewed for a second season by FOX ahead of its 2023 series premiere.
