Joel McHale Confirms Donald Glover for 'Community' Movie

That “six seasons and a movie” joke is becoming less of a joke by the day. Joel McHale recently confirmed that, while it was delayed by the Writers’ strike, the Community movie is, in fact, happening – and it’s not just some reunion show tease.

Even more exciting, though, is the recent confirmation by star Joel McHale, who has been the most vocally gung-ho about the new project, that the series breakout star Donald Glover would also be returning.

What Happened to ‘Community’ In The First Place?

Community has a complex and drama-riddled history. First of all, it had something that even the cast refers to as “the gas leak year” in season 4 after the show’s original creator Dan Harmon was fired. After that year it was cancelled by NBC and brought back to life by Yahoo as a zombie of its former self.

Secondly, the cast slowly went missing over the years in time with these changes – Pierce’s (Chevy Chase) presence became slowly diminished as he began to butt heads with the cast and crew over various issues, and his character was killed off after he dropped a slur on set one day; Troy (Donald Glover) left the show to pursue a rap career as Childish Gambino; Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) also left to “spin-off” into a fake show where she took care of a suicidal, paraplegic detective.

In the end, several of these actors were replaced by others in an attempt to keep the group semi-consistent, and fans were unsure if some of the bigger names would return for the Movie part of six seasons and a movie – this went especially for Chase and Glover.

Joel McHale Unofficially Confirms Donald Glover’s Return as Troy Barnes

While no official announcements have been made, Joel McHale was ready to share on Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast that Donald Glover will, in fact, be returning for the Community film.

“Donald’s coming back and that’s really important. 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.”

McHale joked that if nobody else showed up to filming, he and Glover would just film an episode of Atlanta together (a crossover we’d all love to see.)

However, that “everyone’s coming back” does come with a huge caveat: Chevy Chase will not be returning as Pierce Hawthorne.

Chevy Chase’s Pierce Hawthorne Will Likely Stay Dead

Even without added context outside the show, this isn’t exactly a shock. Pierce Hawthorne literally died in the fourth season of the show – there was even a whole episode about the dramatic reading of his will.

While some may have expected the Pierce hologram that Jeff saw to come back at some point, Joel McHale has now basically confirmed that the dead are going to stay dead this time, saying simply, “Yeah, I don’t think so,” when Ripa asked him about the SNL legend‘s return.

Chase made things difficult for the cast and crew, and didn’t leave on the best of terms, so this omission is likely a welcome one for all involved – and with Glover returning, it surely won’t be noticed nearly as much as it would have.

More information about the Community movie is sure to come soon, and will likely really pick up when the WGA strike ends and they can get back to work – although the threat of a looming SAG-AFTRA strike may mean that negotiations are not budging, it also means that the studios will feel that much more pressure to reach a transformative deal with the unions so that they can all get back to work.

What are you most excited about when it comes to the Community movie? What do you think will happen? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments.