‘Community’ Movie Swaps L.A. Shooting Location for Atlanta to Ensure Donald Glover’s Return

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read
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Donald Glover was a deciding factor in where the “Community” movie would be filmed, according to series creator Dan Harmon.

Beloved NBC sitcom “Community” spurred the hashtag #SixSeasonsandaMovie, landing an upcoming Peacock film that has been years in the making. Despite the initial cast announcement not tagging original cast members Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown (aside from Chevy Chase, who left the series prior to its final season), Harmon confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Brown and Glover would reprise their respective roles.

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“I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that the story would involve the gang getting back together,” Harmon said.

The film will mark a Greendale Community College reunion, with Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Ken Jeong, and Jim Rash returning.

Prior to the WGA and SAG strikes, Harmon noted that Los Angeles-filmed “Community” would shift production to Atlanta to accommodate Glover’s other productions. The “Atlanta” creator has the Prime Video “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” TV series and the “Star Wars” film installment “Lando” in the works, among other projects.

“And Donald was stoked,” Harmon said of Glover.

Now amid the SAG strike continuing, Harmon added, “By the time we can re-coordinate, what are the odds that everyone’s schedule is going to once again align?”

Harmon continued, “The thing that’s going to matter most to me as an audience member or to anybody who loved that show is seeing those people see each other. And they still love each other, and it’s not going to feel the same if you’re shooting them separately at different months in different locations.”

Harmon previously called fans’ dedication to seeing a “Community” movie come to fruition “psychological torture” due to the stop-start of the film’s production.

“The fan that Instagrams every day about ‘Community,’ how can you tell them, ‘Yes, it’s definitely going to happen, but it may be between one and eight years from now’ — which is how the industry works, especially when you factor in pandemics and whatnot,” Harmon said in 2022. “It just feels like psychological torture, from a fan’s perspective, to keep looking into the backseat of a station wagon and saying, ‘Who wants McDonald’s?’ And to just keep driving down the freeway. I don’t want to be guilty of causing that sensation. It just takes so long sometimes.”

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