Joel McHale is giving his word that Donald Glover will be rejoining “Community.”
The former “Soup” host said during Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that Glover is reprising his role of football player Troy in the movie adaptation of the beloved NBC sitcom. Glover was not initially among the announced cast list in September 2022 for the Peacock movie.
“Donald’s coming back and that’s really important,” McHale said. “The fact that Donald’s going to 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 added, “See, it’ll just be Donald. It’ll just be an episode of ‘Atlanta.’”
Peacock representatives declined to comment.
Glover departed “Community” in Season 5. The series continued for an additional season and spurred the fan-led social media campaign #SixSeasonsAndAMovie that launched in 2014.
Original stars McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong are all confirmed for the film. Chevy Chase and Yvette Nicole Brown are not among the returning cast members.
McHale reiterated that Chase is not going to return.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” he said, sarcastically adding, “There wasn’t any issues at all when we were making the show.”
Chase’s character Pierce was killed offscreen following allegations of racist on-set behavior. Series creator Dan Harmon joked that it may not even be “legal” for Chase to return.
However, lead star and executive producer McHale wants two other familiar franchise faces to return: Walton Goggins and Pedro Pascal. Goggins became a guest star after Chase’s firing, and Pascal took over Goggins’ role during a 2020 Zoom table read cast reunion.
“Hopefully Walton and Pedro would come back on, but Pedro seems to be the most famous person now on the planet, so I don’t know,” McHale said.
Production on the “Community” film has been postponed due to the ongoing WGA strike.
