As we head towards January 2nd, there are plenty of reasons for Community fans to be excited. Not only is the show back on that date for Season 5, but series creator Dan Harmon is making his return, along with executive producer Chris McKenna, with the two now serving as co-showrunners. Having seen the first three episodes of Season 5, I can tell you Harmon and McKenna’s return is very obvious and results in some wonderful episodes right off the bat.

A few weeks ago, I visited the set of Community and spoke to the cast about Season 5. I’ll be rolling out all those interviews over the next couple of weeks, leading up to the show’s premiere. First off is Gillian Jacobs, who despite being under the weather the day we spoke, powered through filming her scenes and our interview, as we discussed Harmon’s return and what the future holds for Britta Perry.

Gillian Jacobs as Britta Perry in Community.

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It's wonderful to have Dan back this season! I am a very happy camper.Yes, yes. Well, I would largely credit Joel McHale. I think he's the one I would give the majority of the credit to, but it was certainly something that all of us wanted to have happen. I feel like he really made it come true. Props to Joel.Yeah, I feel like we're doing some of our best work ever this season, so that's really exciting, to do the table reads and be like, "Holy cow!" And then shooting scenes, as you'll see, it's as ambitious and as funny -- so yeah, it definitely feels like we're firing on all cylinders right now.I think that it's a bummer, because I do feel like there was something really special about all of us together as a group, but I also feel like it kind of enables them to break up the group into different formations now, now that you can't do a Troy and Abed storyline. What does that mean for Abed? It sort of reshuffles everyone in, I think, interesting ways. We've been lucky enough to have Jonathan Banks on the show, and he's incredible. Then we've had John Oliver a lot this year -- not for all of them, unfortunately, but we haven't had him in years. So for us, certainly, it's been very exciting. We've had incredible guest stars. So you'll obviously miss them, because they're both amazing, but I don't think you're going to watch the episodes and go like, "It's not the same." I really do feel like these episodes are incredibly strong and really, really great.

Jacobs discusses where Britta is at in Season 5, Jonathan Banks’ character and guest stars Nathan Fillion and Walton Goggins on Page 2.