Will the universally-disliked Chevy Chase make a return for the ‘Community’ movie?

News of an official Community movie is overtaking social media, as fans of the 2010s series flood the web with their delighted takeaways.

The Community faithful have long desired a film to polish off the show’s six-season run, particularly in light of an accidental promise from one of the characters. In a season two episode, Abed teasingly notes—while discussing an entirely different series—that it will run for “six seasons and a movie,” and this created an expectation among fans. Given the show’s tendency to break the fourth wall and deliver strange, non-traditional stories, it felt fitting for fans to take the words as a promise. It was never intended as such, as revealed by series creator Dan Harmon, but that didn’t stop fans from crossing their fingers for a movie.

It’s been seven years since the final episode of Community aired, and fans lost hope of a film long ago. News that the Community flick will soon be a reality took the internet by storm, prompting an overwhelming reaction from longtime viewers. A number of the show’s most necessary leads have already confirmed their return, with Joel McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong all headed back to Greendale.

A few notable absences are raising alarms, however, as fans seek out information on unlisted actors. A film without Donald Glover’s Troy would feel painfully lacking, particularly considering his stellar relationship with Abed, but Chevy Chase’s absence isn’t likely to upset many fans.

Will Chevy Chase be in the Community movie?

In the years since he departed Community, Chase’s reputation as a difficult costar gradually became common knowledge. One of America’s favorite funnymen for years, his toxic personality traits and tendency toward racism overtook any good notes about his personality. It led him to find increasingly infrequent roles in Hollywood, and these days, his presence is rare.

It’s not Chase’s problematic nature that will keep him off the cast of the Community movie, however. At least, not entirely; it may have been the reason he was written off the show in the first place. Without some serious retconning of its own story, Community can’t bring Pierce Hawthorne back into the mix since the character was killed off in the show’s fifth season. His appearances were already becoming seldom by the time he was dispatched in an unassuming, gross off-screen death, but his demise is now part of the show’s canon. It dedicated an entire episode to the group’s goodbyes, sending Pierce off with far more pomp and circumstance than the character—or his actor—deserved.

With this in mind, it seems safe to assume that Chase will not make an appearance in the Community film. There’s always a chance the writers will retcon his death—or it will turn out to have been a ruse all along—but given the actor’s reputation, it seems unlikely. Instead, the Community film will launch on Peacock in 2023 without Pierce and likely be the better for it.