We can't promise a Community movie, but thanks to one Human Being-loving company (ahem, that's Yahoo), Community will be getting revived for a sixth season, set to premiere this Fall on Yahoo Screen. Creator Dan Harmon and castmembers Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong have all signed on for Season 6.
"I am very pleased that Community will be returning for its predestined sixth season on Yahoo," Harmon said in a statement. "I look forward to bringing our beloved NBC sitcom to a larger audience by moving it online. I vow to dominate our new competition. Rest easy, Big Bang Theory. Look out, BangBus!"
"‘The reports of our cancellation have been greatly exaggerated.’" McHale said, attributing the quote to Mark Twain, joking that the other version of this quote has been wrong for years. "#SixSeasonsAndaMovie is real. Thank you Sony. Thank you Yahoo. Thank you Dan Harmon. And thank you to the greatest f%$#ing fans in the history of the human race. It’s the internet. We can swear now."
After five seasons of on-the-bubble ratings, NBC announced Community's cancellation back in May – truly the darkest timeline – but the show's hardcore fans never gave up. There's been plenty of speculation about online outlets vying to give the show a new home ever since, and now we can all wave our inappropriately emblazoned flags in victory.
Community has always been at its best when it's gone super-meta, and Abed's (Pudi) words of wall-breaking wisdom to Annie (Brie) in the Season 5 finale, "Basic Sandwich," signaled to fans that Harmon and co. wouldn't give up the fight if NBC pulled the plug: "This show, Annie ... it isn’t just their show. This is our show, and it’s not over." And then he spouted something about asteroids destroying Greendale... so we're happy that didn't happen.
But they have had their fair share of hurdles along the way: There was the behind-the-scenes drama between Harmon and original castmember Chevy Chase that resulted in Chase's exit in Season 4; there was Harmon's ousting and replacement during Season 4 after repeated issues on set and fights with the network and studio; and there was Donald Glover's exit as Troy after only a handful of episodes in Season 5.
There's no love lost between Harmon and Chase, but we weren't alone in missing Troy Barnes. A lot. At Community's PaleyFest panel back in March, Harmon said he'd try his best to get Glover back on the show, if and when a Season 6 happened.
“I'm just going to go home, kill a chicken, drink its blood, make a Blair Witch thing out of its bones, pray to every deity that I have to that if we do get a sixth season that Donald will have tired of his Donald-ness,” Harmond said at the time.
But a sixth season was seeming less and less likely as time went on. A few weeks back, Harmon seemed cautiously optimistic about the show's future while speaking at the Banff World Media Festival. Harmon praised the show's studio, Sony, for "brokering deals and making the impossible possible," but added a caveat: "I feel, just as a regular fellow looking at the whole thing, it seems so impossible to pull off. So many deals would have to be made that aren't currently made. So many contracts would have to be negotiated."
Now the impossible has become a reality. Back in April, Yahoo announced its plans to create original series, starting with the comedies Other Space, from executive producer Paul Feig, and Sin City Saints, both of which will premiere eight episodes for their first season to binge-watch on Yahoo Screen or the mobile apps.
Community Season 6 will be available in the same format, with all 13 episodes being released at once sometime in 2015. Consider it a new Greendale course requirement: Advanced TV Revitalization & Binge-Watching.
Now stop reading, throw on some Dave Matthews Band, and do a little victory dance!
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