Dan Harmon gives update on Donald Glover ensemble – The Hollywood Reporter

During the series’ run from 2009 to 2015, “6 seasons and 1 movie” became a hashtag and a rallying cry. community fan. Then, just before the pandemic hit, Sony approached Harmon, wanting to seriously explore “And the Movies” after seeing the movie. The show is enjoying a powerful second life on streaming. Harmon then hired guests who worked on earlier seasons and were brought back for the series finale.

“I think Dan knows that he needs a partner as part of his evolution in understanding himself and his creative process,” Guest says, which Harmon explores in depth in his recent book. He said this while talking about his current theme. THR cover profile. “That’s why he’s running someone. rick and morty and someone is running CrapopolisSo both Dan and Sonny said, “Who are we going to be paired with here?” ” I think he said. ”

While having lunch with Harmon at the Smokehouse in early 2020, Guest agreed to participate. From there, the conversation quickly turned to what the movie would be and, just as importantly, who would be a part of it. “It was a very long process because we wanted to involve as many of the cast members who wanted to be involved as possible, so we needed to know who was interested before we knew what the movie was going to be.” There it was,” Guest recalls. THR As for Harmon’s profile, “Because if you just make a movie with Jim Rash and Joel McHale, there’s a movie there, but you have to figure it out sooner or later.”

Happily, all but Chevy Chase, who left before the series ended, agreed to return. Especially since this ensemble includes some of the most in-demand talent of the moment like Donald Glover and stars like Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, and Yvette Nicole Brown, all schedules are in sync. The challenge was to do so. And for Harmon, shooting them separately wasn’t a start. “Because the most important thing for me as an audience member or for people who loved the show is to see those people meet each other,” he says. “And they still love each other. There’s no way they would feel the same even if they filmed separately in different locations in different months.”

Before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike shut down production for several months (and beyond), Harmon revealed that he planned to shoot the movie in Atlanta to ensure Glover could be on set. “And Donald was over the moon,” he says of the show’s biggest break, leaving the series a few seasons before it ended. But now that the suspension has wreaked havoc on everyone’s filming schedule, Harmon admitted how worried he was that the entire project would fall apart. In his words, “What are the chances that everyone’s schedules will be aligned again by the time we can re-arrange?”

But Harmon’s fears don’t end there. Meeting the excessively high expectations of fans is also a major challenge. “And at the end of the day, it’s the fandom that supports me the most and has endured the most to support me,” he says. “Because when I was fighting with Chevrolet, I wasn’t thinking about them. It wasn’t until later that I realized that I was hurting people who didn’t want to think of me as some weird self-proclaimed Kubrick. They were green. They cared about Dale, this world that I created, and all of a sudden they were taking this purely side order from me, which was unfair to them.”

And after all, he doesn’t want to let them down now. “I don’t want to say how scared I am of doing the wrong thing, because somewhere in my heart I know that fear won’t bring anything good,” Harmon continues. “There’s nothing to be gained by impressing what you think you should do or what you think they want. But I don’t want to make mistakes, and that’s really scary. But… I’m holding out hope that being honest with myself about how scared I am is at least a way to break the cycle.”