I bet you thought with Dan Harmon coming back that everything on Community would be getting back to normal. Well, we hate to throw Troy in your wound, but…
According to Vulture, actor Donald Glover, who plays high school football star turned air conditioning messiah Troy Barnes on the NBC comedy series, will only have a part time role in the upcoming – and unexpected – fifth season of Community.
There were rumblings that this was coming last month as Glover’s attention has turned to side projects like his musical alterego as Childish Gambino and developing a new semi-autobiographical comedy for NBC, but a new deal between Glover and Community’s studio, Sony, will officially commit the actor to a mere 5 out of 13 episodes of Community’s next season.
It’s par for the course considering Community’s life as a perpetually on-the-bubble, cult comedy favourite. After a fourth season that was looked upon rather unfavorably by fans and critics following the firing of creator Harmon at the end of season three, it was expected that it would be back to business as usual for the comedy with Harmon’s rehiring as well as the return of executive producer Chris McKenna. Of course, Glover isn’t the first member of the Community cast to make a move for the exit, Chevy Chase bailed on the show last fall just two episodes from the end of filming of season four.
The show may yet make it to six seasons and a movie, but they may now have to do it without the regular presence of Donald Glover and Tory Barnes.
Community returns to the NBC schedule sometime at midseason.
Source: Screen Rant
