There was a time when everyone’s favourite wacky TV show about a ragtag bunch of misfit community college students was staring death right in the eye. Dan Harmon’s public disHarmony with the network and members of his cast was growing increasingly untenable. The show’s ratings were low and not moving anywhere, despite a dedicated and very rabid cult following. With the looming end of the show’s third season, it looked like it was curtains for Community. Now on the cusp of the show’s fifth season finale, it’s looking more and more likely that it will get a sixth and final season. Though once the show’s off-handed “Six Seasons and a Movie” mantra seemed like an unrealistic goal for a production that’s danced as deftly on the knife’s-edge of cancellation as any other in recent memory, now it’s not as far fetched as you might think. There is now talk of extending the show into a feature release, setting Greendale Community College on the path to the big screen.
With
the recent release of the
Veronica Mars movie, it seems increasingly likely that properties such as Community will look to theatres to extend the franchise. Community has no shortage of past directors who have pre-existing, or have gone on to gain, feature film directorial experience. And in fact
Justin Lin, who directed the last four
Fast & Furious films, along with Community’s first season epic paintball episode “
Modern Warfare,” is already rumoured to be in the sights of Community’s parent owner
Sony to helm the project. But other people who fit that bill include
Joe and Anthony Russo (
Captain America: Winter Soldier, plus tonnes of Community episodes including
the Pilot) and
Jay Chandrasekhar (
Super Troopers, Advanced Documentary Filmmaking).
It might only be bare minimal chatter at this stage, but the idea of seeing the Study Group attack the kind of enormous, wild, totally over-the-top concept story that the show is famous for in feature length form is sure to raise the heart rates and blood pressure levels of those who believe in the Darkest Timeline, and cause some curious and mostly unexplainable physical reactions.
Photo: John Shearer via Getty Images.
