It’s been over a decade since fans watched the “#andamovie” tag appear at the end of the Community series finale, and despite Peacock officially greenlighting the feature project in 2022, the long-awaited movie remains stuck in development. Now, series writer Andrew Guest has finally shed light on why production keeps stalling, and it’s not for lack of trying.

Andrew Guest explains the delay with Community movie

Appearing on the February 26 episode of The Watch podcast, Andrew Guest revealed just how close the Community movie actually came to happening a few years ago. According to the writer, the timing couldn’t have been better when the writers’ and actors’ strikes ended in late 2023.

“We got very close to shooting that,” Guest told host Andy Greenwald. “As the writers’ strikes and actors’ strikes were ending, all of our cast were available. All of them wanted to do it. We had a line producer. We had a script that we were in the process of starting to rewrite,” he added.

However, Guest explained that one cast member’s other project created a scheduling conflict, right as everything else fell into place. While he declined to name the actor, he urged fans to “not be upset with any of these people. It’s hard because they’re all incredibly talented and very busy.”

Some shows have navigated scheduling conflicts by filming actors in different locations and piecing scenes together later. Netflix did exactly that with the Arrested Development revival seasons. But Guest insists that that approach would betray what made Community special. “The fun and energy of that show is the chemistry between these people in the same room, around a table,” Guest explained, adding, “So we have to have them all in the same place at the same time.”

For now, Greendale fans will have to keep waiting. But as Guest made clear, the Community movie hold-up isn’t about money, willingness, or creative vision; it’s simply about finding the right moment when seven busy actors can all be in the same room at the same time.