Community Movie Won't Have Paintball or Dungeons & Dragons, Says Creator: It Wouldn't 'Capture the Joy'
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The Community movie will be without two of the show's recurring themes: paintball and Dungeons & Dragons.
In the original series, multiple episodes are centered on the aforementioned games, which Community creator Dan Harmon described on Friday's episode of Six Seasons and a Podcast as "special episodes that ... were kind of like genre homages" rather than something that was constructed to move the plot along in a "traditional" way.
"We did a lot of episodes where ... you are joyfully locked in a construct that isn't a traditional sitcom narrative, but is rather through the lens of David Fincher or [Martin] Scorsese," said Harmon, 49.
As the creator explained of the upcoming film, "It's a lot easier for me to rule stuff out than tell you what we're pursuing. ... For instance, we go, 'Do we really think it'd be a good idea for the Community movie to be a paintball episode?'"
"It's one of the first things to rule out because it's the first thing off the top of your head, and that's an issue with the Community movie concept," Harmon added.
Justin Lubin/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Community
He also said they "tried to do a bunch more paintballs, and they were all perfectly wonderful things to do, but would anything ever capture the joy of the original paintball episode?"
Harmon also touched on the idea of "running around with guns in a school," noting that it presented some challenges considering it "was never a good idea on TV, even back then."
"How can we do that in a way that's acceptable?" he said. "You sit down to write the movie and you're like, 'So, we'd do that, right?' Because it's so emblematic of what made our show special and the triumphs that we had — the things that we contributed as a show."
"Or we'd play Dungeons & Dragons for 90 minutes. I kinda gotta rule that out — maybe a better writer wouldn't," Harmon added.
Community aired for six seasons on NBC from 2009 to 2015. The community-college-set sitcom followed a group of oddball students and their equally wacky teachers.
RELATED VIDEO: Joel McHale Teases a Community Movie: "It's More Real Than It's Ever Been"
Peacock announced in September that it has picked up the feature-length extension of the popular NBC comedy, and much of the series' original cast — including Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong — are on board to reprise their roles.
"'Six seasons and a movie' started out as a cheeky line from Community's early seasons and quickly ignited a passionate fan movement for this iconic, hilarious and cool (cool, cool) NBC comedy," said Susan Rovner, chair of entertainment content at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.
"We're incredibly grateful that 15 years later, we are able to deliver fans this promised movie and can't wait to get to work with Dan Harmon, Andrew Guest, Joel McHale, Sony and our partners at UTV to continue this epic comedy for Peacock audiences," Rovner added.
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In a recent interview with PEOPLE, Brie opened up about the potential of the long-awaited Community movie coming to fruition, explaining that she was just as unsure of the wait as fans of the show were.
"I don't know what the holdup is. It's beyond my pay grade," said Brie, 39. "I'm crossing my fingers as much as anyone. I'm truly waiting to hear on an update about that."
