Joel McHale on Fate of ‘Community’: It’s Not “Affordable” to Keep Making Show

School’s out for the students at Greendale Community College.

Community has been canceled after six seasons. Star Joel McHale reported the show’s demise in an interview with Metro Weekly.

“All of our contracts were up after six years,” he said. “All the actors on the show, almost without exception — their stock has risen significantly, and it’s out of the pay rate that is affordable to make the show. So you’re not going to be able to get Alison Brie or Gillian Jacobs at a normal television salary anymore. There is just not enough money to be able to pay for the show.”

Despite McHale’s initial comments, the fate of the show has yet to be determined by Sony Pictures Television — which produces the series — according to sources. Sony declined to comment.

Yahoo also has not yet given up hope on more Community. “We’ve seen tremendous value in our partnership with Sony and are continuing to discuss future opportunities for Community,” said a Yahoo representative in a statement.

Late Tuesday, McHale also backtracked on his earlier remarks, tweeting that the show had yet to be axed.

Easy sugar-bear, Community is not canceled. #QuestionMarkSeasonsAndaMovie

— Joel McHale (@joelmchale) August 4, 2015

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, creator and showrunner Dan Harmon said that a movie was more likely than a seventh season of the single-cam comedy, in line with the popular battle cry among fans: #sixseasonsandamovie.

“I think there’s a higher chance of a movie than a seventh season,” he said. “I think it has to do with talent contracts. We’ve got a lot of very talented people whose contracts have run out, and they get to explore the world and see what comes of it. In that kind of situation, anybody coming to those people and rounding them up like the Magnificent Seven and saying, ‘Who wants to do a movie?’ — I think the chance of getting a ‘Yes’ to that is much higher than, ‘Who wants to come back to Vietnam — the war’s not over yet.’ I think the idea of a movie just sounds more fun and also sounds like it has a hard out in terms of schedule.”

The most recent season of Community saw the series move from NBC to Yahoo — the company’s first continuation of an existing series. In addition, Yvette Nicole Brown exited as a series regular, and Paget Brewster and Keith David were added.

Even before moving to Yahoo, the ratings-beleaguered series suffered several brushes with cancellation during its run on NBC. Harmon exited the series as showrunner ahead of season four, only to return in season five.

Executive produced by Harmon, Russ Krasnoff, Gary Foster and Chris McKenna, Community hails from Krasnoff Foster Productions and Harmonius Claptrap in association with Universal Media Studios and Sony.

In addition to Community, Yahoo unveiled original series Sin City Saints and Other Space earlier this year.

Aug. 4, 2:15 p.m. Updated with statement from Yahoo.

Aug. 4, 3:30 p.m. Updated with McHale’s tweet.