RIP ‘Community’ — Joel McHale says the cult hit is really dead

At least half of the Community prophecy has come true: We got our six seasons. As for six seasons AND MORE? Not so much. Though if given the option, we’d watch a million more seasons of Community, according to Joel McHale, the show is done. Guess this means we’ve officially graduated from Greendale.

It’s been a long and winding road to even get to six seasons of Community. The show started on NBC, and was helmed by showrunner Dan Harmon for three seasons. Then, Harmon was fired for season four. He was re-hired for season five. Then, Community was canceled on NBC. BUT THEN, Yahoo! Screen saved it from the cancellation graveyard, and brought us a sixth season on their streaming platform. But according to McHale, there isn’t going to be an 11th hour save this time; Community is really dead.

Talking to D.C.’s Metro Weekly, McHale explained that while Yahoo! Screen would love to do seven seasons and more, the actors’ contracts were up after six. In McHale’s words, “[everyone’s] stock has risen significantly and it’s out of the pay rate that is affordable to make the show… There is just not enough money to be able to pay for the show.” It’s really done.

Don’t cry too much, though. Community might not be dead forever — let’s not assume this is already the Darkest Timeline. Remember the second part of the Community prophecy? Six seasons… AND A MOVIE? That movie might very well happen, but not for a while. Harmon recently told Entertainment Weekly that Yahoo! approached him for a movie, but he responded that, “I can’t think about writing a movie until I miss Community.”  Eventually Harmons’ going to miss Community? Right? We already miss Community.

Eventually, he’s going to dress Dean Pelton up in another outlandish costume. Or orchestrate another paintball game. Or check in on Troy and LeVar Burton sailing around the world together on a boat called the Childish Tycoon. Or finally resolve the Jeff-Annie-Britta triangle. Or do another bottle episode. Or do another animated/stop-motion/puppet episode. Or try to save Greendale again. Or any one of a hundred things different things to check in on our favorite study group about. We’ll be waiting.

(Image via NBC and Giphy)