Community cast members Joel McHale Yvette Nicole Brown and Jim Rash spoke to the press today at an NBC event, as the series heads into the final episodes of Season 3 . Of course, the big question for fans right now is whether the show will be back for Season 4. Things are looking optimistic, but loyal viewers of the beloved series are hoping to have a concrete answer soon.

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I asked the cast if they'd heard anything new about a potential renewal, to which McHale (jokingly!) replied, "Oh yeah, we got renewed! Oh, they didn't tell you?! Yeah, they told us about that." Said Brown, "No, we have idea. We never know until they tell us and they haven't told us anything about it."The cast felt they'd simply find out shortly before NBC's Upfront next month, where the full fall lineup is announced, with McHale pointing out that none of NBC's comedies (including The Office, Parks and Recreation, Up All Night and 30 Rock) had been officially picked up yet for the next season, so Community wasn't alone in that regard. McHale's point seemed to simply be: Don't panic. Unless, as he jokingly added, "NBC's going with zero comedies… "Community got a lot of press recently for an angry voice mail left by Chevy Chase for the show's creator Dan Harmon that went public, along with an interview Chase gave where he was highly critical of the series. Asked about having Chase say the show isn't funny, McHale replied, "He says that every day. We can just say, 'Well, it's not Karate Dog!'"As to whether he thinks Chase, despite his critical words, would be back for a potential Season 4, McHale said, "Yes. I see him wearing white robes and wings and he comes crashing through." More seriously, he remarked, "Those voice mails… He obviously wasn't very happy, but he loves the cast and my guess is he will be back… if we're back! Let's get the pickup and then we'll see what happens. I'm assuming so… if he gets the Bentley that he's asking for."McHale also joked that, "There's four more voice mails coming out. It's a whole series. It's going to be a book on CD. And it will be read out loud by…" "Samuel L. Jackson!", Yvette Nicole Brown offered.

Community: Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs Interview

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As for the rest of Season 3, Brown said she was very happy that, "She got to work a lot more with this chucklehead this season," referring to McHale, but added, "I would love to work with Donald Glover . We've never had a storyline." Said the always deadpan McHale, "He doesn't want to work with you." A clip screened from the season finale showed Jeff in the middle of a trial scenario with his old colleague Alan (returning guest star Rob Corddry), which Shirley is involved in as well.There has been talk about this season getting darker as it goes on (The Darkest Timeline!), which the cast agreed was true. However, McHale said he felt one strength of Community was that it could retain its sense of humor even in the midst of darker storylines, noting Season 2's Dungeons & Dragons episode was about someone who was suicidal, "but the jokes in it were incredibly strong."Rash said that when it came to the darker path of the story, "I think that's by design. I think the ideas is in the third chapter… what's great about this sort of dip is that it brings all these characters, again, to a place where they have to come together and solve this. So I think we're building towards breaking things down to have that nice finale for this chapter."There's been some speculation that should Community get a fourth season, it would "naturally" be the final one, as it could also mark the end of four years of school (though community college doesn't have to take four years…). But McHale didn't see Season 4 as having to be the end, suggesting the show could continue on to, "Graduate school! Post graduate! Teaching!"But as to what they'd like to see happen for their characters before the show ended, Rash turned to McHale and said, "I guess we should get married, right? America wants it."McHale said he felt, "A wrap up for Jeff would be finally confronting his daddy issues and dealing more with his mother," while Brown stated, "I'd like Shirley to succeed in her independence. I'd love for her to still pursue her dreams – opening a sandwich shop or bakery business."Community is known for going to some very strange places and the cast said it was hard to surprise them anymore when it came to reading the scripts to the show. Remarked Brown, "We've been to space in a chicken bus. We've had a zombie apocalypse. I don't think there's anything that would surprise us." Added McHale, as another example, "Chang now has an army of children who keep martial law at the school."McHale had nothing but praise for the writing on the series, saying, "Opening those scripts is like Christmas morning."One reporter asked McHale who he felt had the bigger internet following at this point – him or his costar Alison Brie . Said McHale, "I think Alison by a mile. She has a way better body." To which Brown quickly replied, "I don't know, Joel…."

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