“Community” creator Dan Harmon was joined by castmembers Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash and Dino Stamatopoulos, as well as writer Chris McKenna, for a panel discussion on the show’s upcoming sixth season on Yahoo TV. He even teased the “and a movie” portion of the show’s signature hashtag: #sixseasonsandamovie
While Yahoo TV had previous teased a possible fall return for the show, Harmon told the assembled audience that it was more likely going to be “probably sometime after Christmas.” He said the plan was to start writing in the fall, according to the Associated Press.
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As for that process, Harmon isn’t planning anything as ambitious as “Arrested Development” did when it put together its latest season for Netflix. “My philosophy is: Attempt to make the same show, and let the lack of boundaries kind of make themselves felt, instead of just going, ‘We can make the episode 49 minutes long, and say the f-word the whole time,’” he said in the panel.
He said he didn’t want to run the risk of people thinking, “Well, this is just some new show.”
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When asked about Donald Glover, Harmon echoed speculation that his fate during his round-the-world trip to inherit Chevy Chase‘s fortune could become fodder for the speculated film. “Troy’s out there somewhere. He may be in peril. That’s what movies are made of,” he said. “I have no plans of that, but it could be good. A ‘Search for Spock’ kind of thing.”
That said, though, Harmon wasn’t going to be the one to shut the door on Glover’s involvement in Season 6. It was the actor’s choice to leave the show to pursue other opportunities in his career at the beginning of the fifth season.
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Harmon went so far as to publicly offer Glover a spot in the new season by hastily adding, “Not that I’m rejecting the idea of him coming back for season 6. Donald, if you’re listening.”
The plan is to release the 13-episode sixth season weekly, rather than the all-at-once model favored by most streaming services. Amazon tried a weekly schedule for its initial offerings, like the first season of “Alpha House,” but has switched to the all-at-once approach for its newest projects.