‘Community’ Canceled, Joel McHale Confirms, But A Movie May Still Be In The Works

Community is canceled, star Joel McHale has confirmed in a recent interview, but other sources are hinting that a movie may be in the works.

McHale recently sat down for an interview with Metro Weekly writer Randy Shulman, where the openly gay actor, and host of The Soup, talked about a wide range of topics, including his role as the snarky Jeff Winger on Community. The offbeat show lasted five seasons on NBC, before being picked up by Yahoo! for a sixth. But McHale said that the final bell has rung on Community, and the show has been canceled, for good this time.

“All of our contracts were up after six years. All the actors on the show, almost without exception — their stock has risen significantly and it’s out of the pay rate that is affordable to make the show. So you’re not going to be able to get Alison Brie or Gillian Jacobs at a normal television salary anymore. There is just not enough money to be able to pay for the show.”

Joel McHale’s words notwithstanding, fans of Community may not have to say goodbye to their favorite characters just yet: as Entertainment Weekly reports, Yahoo! and Sony may be hashing out a Community movie. Yahoo issued a statement Tuesday offering a glimmer of hope.

“We’ve seen tremendous value in our partnership with Sony and are continuing to discuss future opportunities for Community.”

And it looks like the idea of a Community movie sits well with creator Dan Harmon. In a June interview, Harmon praised Yahoo! for giving Community a second chance, and mentioned that if anybody can make a Community movie a reality, it’s Yahoo!

“They wanted to turn around and do a movie immediately, and Yahoo! can get it done. They’re like the NSA.”

McHale’s co-star Ken Jeong — who now has a new job lined up for the fall starring in ABC’s Dr. Ken — said he’d jump at the chance to do a Community movie.

“I want to do it yesterday. I just saw Joel McHale recently and we were talking about it. And actually whenever we get together, all we do is talk: ‘When are we going to get the band back together?’ You couldn’t sign me up any quicker. I hate to be all cryptic about it, but it will happen when it happens – but I definitely think it will happen.”

[Image courtesy of: Getty Images / Kevin Winter]