NBC renewed Community for a fifth season of 13 episodes Friday evening, and now, Deadline is reporting that Dan Harmon returning to the show is a possibility. Deadline has some pretty vague rumor-y statements about this hypothetical situation, writing, “there is speculation that Harmon may come back, especially if this turns out to be Community‘s final chapter” and “I hear there certainly is interest in bringing Harmon back in some capacity.”
Since being fired as Community’s showrunner last May, Harmon has been keeping busy with his animated Adult Swim show Rick and Morty, developing projects for CBS and Fox, opened a claymation studio, and went on a nationwide tour with his podcast/live show Harmontown. No offer has been made to Harmon yet, and Deadline’s story could turn out be bullshit anyway. If it’s true and NBC and/or Sony is really interested in bringing Harmon back (key words in Deadline’s story are “in some capacity”), it’s hard to predict whether he’d even be interested in returning to Community at this point. Given the way NBC and Sony treated him, you can’t really blame Harmon for not running back into their arms, but I’m sure the prospect of getting his baby back for one last season is as exciting for him as it is for Community fans, who generally seem to have felt that the show took a dip in its post-Harmon era.
