Hulu Eyes ‘Community’ for Sixth Season
Don’t give up on six seasons and a movie just yet: Community may live again on Hulu, with Deadline reporting the streaming service is in talks with the show’s producer, Sony Pictures TV, to revive the recently canceled cult comedy for a sixth season.
See Where ‘Community’ Ranked on Our Top 40 Cult TV Comedies List
The talks are very preliminary, but according to sources the interest seems to be there from all parties, including creator Dan Harmon. Earlier this month, Harmon expressed concerns about bringing the show back in a lengthy blog post, touching on creative logistics and his wariness about a major corporation’s “rather unfair, somewhat backward system” of fan-generated show revival.
Still, Harmon closed his note saying he “will not be standing in the way” of a potential revival, and the show would be a big get for Hulu, who are eager to expand their original programming. Hulu also already has a digital syndication deal with Community (along with the show’s off-network deal with Comedy Central), making the streaming service an obvious fit for the show.
Community was canceled at the beginning of May after wrapping up its fifth season. Despite a rabid fan base, the beleaguered show lagged in the ratings and always seemed on the verge of being canceled, especially when Harmon was replaced as show runner ahead of its fourth season. The show also lost two of its stars in quick succession, with Chevy Chase leaving midway through the fourth season, and Donald Glover exiting early on in the fifth.
Ahead of the show’s cancellation, Harmon spoke to Rolling Stone about the sitcom’s perpetually uncertain future saying, like always, the odds were 50/50. “I wouldn’t want it any other way now,” he continued. “Being a sure thing means I’d start thinking about not wanting to do it. I want it to be a surprise. I want them to fire me again, to promote me to head of NBC, I want them to cancel the show, to pick it up for 100 more episodes. It’s exhilarating. It’s the golden age of TV, my friend, which is another way of saying TV is dying.”