Comic-Con 2014: Dan Harmon and Joel McHale Discuss ‘Community’ Season 6

Six seasons and a movie is one step closer to reality. Although we joked about it this April Fools’ Day, the sixth season of Community has been confirmed, and will premiere later this year on Yahoo! Screen. At this year’s Comic-Con panel, creator Dan Harmon was joined by stars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Dino Stamatopoulos, as well as executive producer Chris McKenna. Find out what we learned at the panel about the upcoming sixth season and more after the jump.

Once the in-depth sizzle real of the past five seasons had done its job, the Comic-Con 2014 crowd was pumped and ready to revisit the halls of Greendale Community College once more. After the crushing news that NBC had cancelled the cult comedy, Human Beings were horrendously distraught. But fear not, because as the video states:

“Ratings? Where we’re going, we don’t need ratings.”

Once the panel started, Harmon reiterates that point:

“With Season 6 of ‘Community,’ you’ll be watching it the way you always watched it, only this time it’s legal.”

Harmon’s infamous note about NBC spread like wildfire when he was fired after season three – he was brought back for season five – but who knew Joel McHale was so anti-network as well:

“I had no doubt we would be back. Like a Japanese general in World War II, the only option was victory or suicide. I always wanted it back if they would pay me what Jim Parsons is making. I was ready to do, yeah, regional theater version of the show. I know that all of you, mostly white people… you watch it the way that most people do is on tiny little screens and now we’re on one, so f*** you network television, unless they want us back.”

Gillian Jacobs who plays Britta on the series is also very enthusiastic for the show’s return:

“I didn’t want it to end and I’m excited to see what the web version of the show looks like.”

And so is Jim Rash who plays Dean Pelton:

“It’s been a blessing each season to go to the next one.”

While Harmon jokes that they are hard at work with a Pokémon episode – which wouldn’t seem unlikely if they did – the showrunner had no answer for audiences as to what they can expect; a running theme for how the man works.

“I have no idea. I start every season this way. I don’t have any big, high-falootin’ plans. I have a lot of anti-vaccination messaging that I always wanted… I think that the ‘Community’ that these guys recognize need to be there and I’m very careful about that.”

Concluding his statement, Harmon says he wants to take advantage of the lack of boundaries that are not present being an online show now. However, he still wants Community fans to know that this is not a new show and that the 20-ish minute long sitcom rhythm will remain ever present. Chris McKenna also adds to the conversation that this will also air weekly like a normal television show, unlike Netflix where they dump the whole season online at once.

Concluding, what is the fate of Donal Glover’s character Troy Barnes many wonder. McHale jokingly says he’d “like to cutaway to Donald eating Lavar Burton,” but Harmon had a more sincere answer the the question:

“Troy’s out there somewhere. He may be in peril. That’s what movies are made of.”

(Click on the images below to enlarge)

Created by Dan Harmon, Community season six will see the return of Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong.

Community season six is expected to return in December on Yahoo! Screen.