Dan Harmon: Season 5 the 'Most Important' in 'Community' History, Goal Is Six Seasons and a Movie

First off, I know that it doesn't make sense to lead an article about Dan Harmon with a picture of Alison Brie in a Luigi hat, but — c'mon — it's Alison Brie in a Luigi hat. Anyways, Harmon had a lot to say about the future of Community during the show's panel on the final day of Comic-Con. After reclaiming his rightful place as Community showrunner, Harmon has had his hands full moving the series forward, dealing with Donald Glover leaving the show and still fighting for Community's future.

Unlike a few of his previous talks about Community, Harmon avoided trashing the pretender Season 4, instead focusing on what Season 5 would have in store for fans. From The Hollywood Reporter:

"New levels of anxiety that will trickle into the content I'm sure," Harmon said of season five. "I feel a tremendous amount of pressure ... No one wants to not fail more than me, I think." He added: "It's a weird story going away and coming back. I really have to make these 13 count. I don't consider this the last 13 ... but I consider them the most important in the story of the show."

And why are these episodes so important? When NBC renewed Community, the popular wisdom was that the 13-episode order would be the show's final batch of episodes. Harmon doesn't see things that way, though, saying that he was "going to do everything I can to get that sixth season." Six seasons and a movie isn't just a Twitter hashtag, according to Harmon.

So how could Community live on past Season 5?

Prior to Harmon returning, I always felt there would be no way for Community to move to another network or even Netflix or Hulu, but now that he's back, I think that would be a possibility. This is his show. It always has been. NBC has made that absolutely clear now that they've humbled themselves and brought Harmon back.

As for Season 5, Harmon didn't show his cards too much, briefly hinting that we could see a sequel to the Dungeons and Dragons episode. "We have to get back to the emotional basics and have the most fun we can have," Harmon told the Comic-Con crowd, acknowleding that the heart of Community has always been its characters. Sadly the Season 4 writers didn't understand that, spending Season 4 beating the show's gimmicks to death.