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Alison Brie on What She Wants to See in The Community Movie - and What About Annie and Jeff?
Alison Brie also revealed where she thinks her character, Annie, would be today.
It’s no secret that one of television’s most beloved sitcoms is now coming to the big screen after running six seasons and concluding in 2015. Peacock announced back in October 2023 that NBC’s cult classic Community would soon continue as a film.
“‘Six seasons and a movie' started out as a cheeky line from Community’s early seasons and quickly ignited a passionate fan movement for this iconic, hilarious, and cool (cool, cool) NBC comedy,” said Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.
Alison Brie, who played Annie Edison on the series, told Collider she didn’t think the hashtag #sixseasonsandamovie would ever actually come true.
“It’s crazy. I’m totally surprised. For a long time, I think it was just a great joke. It was a great hashtag. It was a great way for a stranger to yell something at me, from across the street,” she said. “And it’s a credit to our fans, absolutely, that it’s happening. The Community fans are the best. They made this happen. They have kept six seasons and a movie a dream that’s been alive for all of these years. So, I am totally surprised and super excited.”
Original cast members Joel McHale, Donald Glover, Danny Pudi, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong have signed onto the project.
And fresh off starring in the Peacock drama Apples Never Fall, Brie will also reprise her role as Annie.
"Everybody's talking it up, so it's a good sign actually that we're all signed on, we're all excited to do it, and now it's just a matter of getting a script and coordinating schedules, really," Brie said in a new interview with NBC Insider. "I'll believe it when I see it, but I'm optimistic."
How is Alison Brie's Apples Never Fall character different from Annie on Community?
Unlike studious, serious Annie on Community, Brie describes her character, Amy Delaney, on Apples Never Fall as having a "hippie dippy nature."
"I think she spent a large portion of her life kind of in therapy and trying to figure out and trying to undo some of the damage that was done in their highly competitive tennis childhood," Brie said in an interview with NBC Insider. "She hasn't done a lot of work in other areas of her life, like finding a real job, or a place to live, and I think she feels like the black sheep of the family."
That's not like Annie from Community, who tended to be more uptight and high-achieving. Where does Brie think Annie is today? In a good place in her life.
"Well, unlike Amy, I think Annie probably really has her s--t together," Brie told NBC Insider. "I would bet that she probably has a great job and is very successful, if not still dreaming what a life with Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) would've been like."
What has Alison Brie revealed about the Community movie?
“It was so fun. It was a blast!” Brie told Screen Rant Plus about working with Pudi again. “It was everything you’d think. Like for us, it was so great because it felt like we didn’t skip a beat. It was just like being on the set of Community…We actually came back from shooting it and the rest of the Community cast was like, ‘Guys! Okay! So we got a little taste and it’s excellent. Like, we should definitely get this movie going.’”
Filming on the movie could begin soon, Brie revealed in an interview with AP Entertainment.
“I heard a rumor Joel McHale says we’re filming it this summer, so fingers crossed,” she said. “He said it first and I’m just reiterating. But I hope so. I hope that we do it this summer. I’m really excited.”
What does Brie hope for her character when she does get to read that script?
“I think Annie being like the youngest member of the study group, she always had a bit of growing up to do, so we’ll see if she’s grown up a bit — but hopefully not too much,” Brie said in an interview with Screen Rant Plus.
When the TV series ended, Annie had accepted an internship with the FBI in Washington, D.C. Despite her move to the nation’s capital, Brie also hopes one thing remains the same for Annie when Community returns.
“I do hope that Annie still has a crush on Jeff, because I’ve always loved playing out that back-and-forth with Joel [McHale],” Brie told TheWrap back in February.
Brie also said she's just excited to hang out with her Community co-stars again.
“Because I love those guys," Brie told The A.V. Club. "And just thinking about being back in the study room, back at Greendale together, all of us making our different jokes and our different character voices and modes, and that chemistry between everybody is really special.”
Watch Alison Brie in Apples Never Fall when it premieres on Peacock on March 14.
Additional reporting by Stephanie Gomulka