In the second of our interviews with the cast of Community , as we eagerly await the show’s return on January 2nd, I sat down with Yvette Nicole Brown.

Gillian Jacobs Talks Community: Season 5

Check out what Brown had to say about Dan Harmon’s return, Donald Glover leaving the show and what Shirley is up to in Season 5.

Yvette Nicole Brown as Shirley Bennett in Community.

Loading

Alison Brie and Yvette Nicole Brown in Community.

It's great having Dan back. I've always heard the phrase, "We're getting the band back together," but this really feels like that. It feels like, "Oh, okay, this is home." Having him back is like home. It's exactly the way it's supposed to be. And the scripts that he and Chris McKenna and the writers are creating are just insane. Great guest cast this year. It's like a rebirth of the show. The Season 5 premiere is called "Repilot," and it really is. I said this at CommuniCon: If you're just tuning in for the first time to the show, this first episode of the fifth season explains the relationships. You will 100 percent understand what this show is about. So it's great.Yeah, and then also having John Oliver back and adding Jonathan Banks. We've had a lot of really, really cool guest stars that have just elevated what we do. It's like introducing someone else to the wackiness. We get to see the show through their eyes. It's like a rebirth for us as well, so it's really cool.Yeah. You know, I think what I like about Community is, as wacky and weird as it is, it's always been grounded in the sense of reality that it is a community college; people graduate and people move on. In life, people make decisions and change and grow. I think it's probably healthy to show that side of what this show is. Speaking of Donald particularly, I think it would have been a waste of the talent that he is for him not, at this stage of his life, to try to see and do everything that he wants to see and do. You know what it's like to be 30, you know what I mean? I haven't reached that milestone, sure, but I've heard stories about it! [Laughs] But when you're 30, that's like that line between childhood and adulthood. Most people that I know at 29, 30, 31, they make some big decisions. Some people get married, some people move to another state, some people start a new career. He had already done so much on this show that's brilliant. It's kind of at a point that, as Yvette, a cast member of the show, I’m devastated! Devastated, gutted, sad, right? As Yvette, Donald's friend -- and that's the last time I'll talk in third person, because that's really weird that I did that -- but as Donald's friend, I am overjoyed and excited and ecstatic, and I don't even know what he's gonna do -- and I don't even know if he knows what he's gonna do, but it's just so exciting that he gets to now try everything and see what it is that makes his art sing. For that, I'm excited. Look, if there was ever a year that we had to lose Troy, Dan and Chris McKenna coming back is the perfect time to write that exit and how it will affect all of us and how it will affect Greendale. I think it's a part of life. It's a community college, and it's a part of life.You know, Shirley's got her own issues right now, as they all do. This first episode back, we find out that everybody's life has not been what they expected. So I kind of feel like Shirley feels like, if it makes you happy, God bless. And it remains to be seen if it makes them happy. I think that Jeff is fighting that. The whole time when he lost his job at the firm and he came to Greendale, his whole point was, "I want to get back to my life." Texting all the time, and he always fought being a part of the Greendale Seven. He fought being a part of this community, because he felt back there that his life was so much better. I feel like the way Dan and Chris wrote it, it's the grass is not always greener. Maybe the new family that you made is better than this imagined, cool life that you had. So we see that, and I think becoming a teacher is part of that. It's either his acceptance that he's changed as a person, or that it's okay to try different things. I don't know which one it's going to be. It depends on how they write it, but I think Shirley would be happy for Jeff to find his way, whatever that may be. She's happy to have him close back with the fold. He graduated and now he's back.Yeah, apparently there's something going on with her and Andre. Things are not well with that. I don't know what's happening specifically, but I think they've broken up again. She still wears her ring sporadically. I don't know what's happening with that. At school, she's still just supporting the gang. Whatever shenanigans they get into, she's a part of it -- sometimes reluctantly, sometimes gung-ho. One thing I will say about Shirley's journey over the five years is that she's really good at pretty much everything. She can find an angle in any situation. Even if it's an apocalyptic situation, she will find a way to sell her baked goods and whatnot and make it work! So I like where she is, and I like the person that she's become. I've always heard as an actor that it's important to sympathize with the person that you're playing, and I really do sympathize with her. I think she's a cool person, which is weird saying that because I play her, but I'm rooting for her. She continues to grow and change, and I think that's good.

Community returns Thursday, January 2nd at 8pm on NBC.Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman