Joel McHale Says He’s To Blame For ‘Community’ Movie Delay

Joel McHale says if anyone’s to blame for the delay of the Community movie it’s him.

While speaking to GQ after his role in Season 3 of FX’s hit kitchen drama The Bear, the actor blamed his busy schedule for the delay.

“It hasn’t been shot yet. It will be. And I don’t have a definitive update because we thought for a moment it was going to all happen this year, and then it didn’t,” he said.

“But we have the money, and that is a huge step. And hopefully, people still want to see it. And Peacock’s paying for it. And so I can’t wait to do it. I’ll say vaguely next year. How about that?”

When the interviewer joked that the delay was due to Donald Glover‘s lack of availability, McHale replied: “No! If it’s anybody’s fault, it’s my schedule on this one. It’s not his at all. He was available. No, no, no, no.”

He added: “I will say, and please print this. That was definitely not true. It was not Donald’s schedule. We love Donald. You can fully blame my schedule.”

Back in February, Glover confirmed that he was “all in” for the movie after being told that the script had been finished.

The project was first announced back in September 2022, nearly ten years after fans started a petition for a movie to end the comedy’s run.

Series creator Dan Harmon will reunite with the show’s original cast members McHale, Glover, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong. McHale and Andrew Guest will serve as executive producers on the film.

“‘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, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, in a statement at the time.

“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.”

Glover was the one who initially pitched the idea of a Community movie during the cast’s virtual reunion table read in 2020, which was his first appearance with the cast since he left the show in Season 5.

Chevy Chase, who was in the original series but left in Season 4 due to conflicts with Harmon, won’t be featured in the movie as his character was killed off in Season 5.