As the writers and producers of NBC’s Community gear up for Season 3, showrunner Dan Harmon tells The Hollywood Reporter that the casting of The Wire’s Michael K. Williams as Greendale’s biology professor will help to introduce some deep challenges for Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) and the study group in the upcoming season.

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Harmon tells us that he really wanted Williamson on the show and his current three-episode arc was written expressly for the actor. “It’s one of those rare things where the casting was the idea and the character was created to suit [the actor],” he tells us.

Each season, the series focuses on a certain subject that signifies its theme. In Season 1, it was Spanish class as the group first began to figure out how to communicate with each other. In Season 2, it was anthropology and the gang formalized its bond into what Harmon calls a “tribe.” And in Season 3, biology will present the next step in the group’s evolution.

“This season is going to be now that we are a tribe that loves each other forever,” Harmon tells us. “Now, we have to deal with life, which is tantamount to saying we have to deal with God, because life comes and it goes. And that’s a catastrophic realization for everybody.”

“The third chapter of a four chapter story is always the darkest if it’s going to be a good story,” he continues. “So, this is the year that the meaning of life itself is the subject of their studying and that’s going to be the theme of the season.”

Watch the interview above.

Email: Jethro.Nededog@thr.com; Twitter: @TheRealJethro

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