Joel McHale Says ‘Community’ Movie Will Be Without a Major Star

Joel McHale recently offered some details about the upcoming Community movie, revealing that the film will be coming to Peacock without one major star of the show. While speaking to Kelly Ripa on her Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, McHale explained that while Donald Glover will return as Troy Barnes, Chevy Chase will not be reprising his role as millionaire Pierce Hawthorne.

“Donald’s coming back and that’s really important,” McHale told Ripa. “The fact that Donald’s gonna do it, that was the big piece. But I think everyone’s coming back. I mean, so far we’re pretty good. And I think that will happen. If not then, you know, Donald will be there.” The actor then quipped, “See, it’ll just be Donald. It’ll just be an episode of Atlanta.” Notably, EW reports that Glover’s involvement is yet to be confirmed by Peacock.

Regarding Chase’s involvement, McHale confirmed that it is non-existent. “Yeah, I don’t think so,” he replied when asked if the former SNL legend would come back for the Community movie. “There wasn’t any issues at all when we were making the show,” he then quipped, sarcastically. Fans of the series will recall that Chase was alleged to have grown notoriously difficult to work with over time. He eventually exited and his character was killed off.

Just ahead of the Community movie being officially announced in September 2022, series creator Dan Harmon was speaking with Newsweek about Season 6 of  — the hit Adult Swim animated series he co-created — and was asked about the “six seasons and movie” slogan that Community fans have rallied around since before the show ended. “I will now say it’s a matter of ‘when.’ I have been so careful about [saying] that,” Harmon confessed.

“It would have been accurate three years ago to say ‘it’s a matter of when not if.’ The wheels have been in motion for that long,” he added. Harmon then offered praise for the show’s loyal fans who’ve continued to advocate for the film. “The fan that Instagrams every day about Community, how can you tell them, ‘yes, it’s definitely going to happen, but it may be between one and eight years from now’ — which is how the industry works, especially when you factor in pandemics and whatnot,” he said.

Harmon went on to tease, “How about this for a concrete thing? There is an outline for it. There’s a product put together and pitched out in the world. I guess that’s how real it is.” He then quipped, “That’s probably enough that’ll make people mad when [there’s nothing] a year from now. It still doesn’t mean there’s going to be a movie tomorrow. It means there is definitely going to be one.”