Community, since its inception, was built on the inherent draw and eccentricities of its characters. Celebrating all the absurdity and sense of adventure that television comedy was always capable of, creator Dan Harmon really let loose on Greendale Community College and filled it with some colorful characters.

  • Greendale’s study group is returning; the Community movie is officially happening, reuniting much of the original cast, and is set for release on Peacock. With this news has come much speculation about which other characters could be making a comeback, particularly as some amazing characters were underused in the original show. All six seasons of Community are able to stream on Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video, and it will be interesting to see if any of these familiar faces reappear.

While the main storylines were always going to center around the core cast, the variety of the rest of the characters in the series made it seem like Community missed a lot of potential opportunities across its six-season run.

Rachel

Given that Brie Larson achieved far more recognition as an actress around the same time that she first appeared as Rachel—a love interest for Abed—in Community, the lack of follow-through with her character does make sense.

Eustice Whitman

Eustice Whitman was Jeff’s accounting professor in season 1, though the term “accounting” could be used loosely. Taking on a Dead Poets Society-esque approach to teaching, Eustice Whitman was a whimsical character who based his class and teaching style on getting his class to live every day to its fullest.

His passion and drive immediately clashed with the inherently lazy and insincere Jeff, creating an interesting dynamic that only appeared for a couple of episodes. As funny as his inspirational teacher shtick was, though, Whitman could’ve been a great mentor for the rest of the series, constantly vying to get the characters to push themselves more and more. However, like many other Community characters, he left too soon.

Annie Kim

While there have certainly been plenty of villains across Community, there have been few consistent foils that have stayed to really challenge the main cast. Annie Kim could’ve been a great, recurring enemy (or even possible friend) for Annie Edison.

Michelle Slater

Love triangles are a common storyline in sitcoms, and one was central to the story of the latter half of Community’s first season, where Jeff struggled to choose between Britta and the smart and mature Professor Michelle Slater.

While Community deserves praise for subverting sitcom tropes and not rewarding this storyline, it’s a little disappointing to see Slater just disappear in season 2. The series mentions her disappearance in a passing joke, but such a throwaway line makes it even more disappointing that such a built-up character in season 1 was just abandoned.

Andre Bennett

While the rest of the study group is isolated in some form, Shirley does have people counting on her outside of Greendale, and given that a lot of her character motivation is focused on supporting her family, it’s strange to see them so rarely featured on screen.

Shirley’s husband in particular, Andre Bennett, was a great piece of her history that she worked hard to reconcile with. Andre’s disappearance after season 3 was disappointing and mirrored how Shirley herself was unfairly sidelined in the show, despite her status as one of the funniest characters in Community. Additionally, in season 5 Shirley reveals that she learned nothing from her reconciliation and that Andre left her, doing a further disservice to the character.

Gilbert Lawson

Giancarlo Esposito was undoubtedly one of Community’s best guest stars. Fans would be forgiven for forgetting his appearance in the show, though, given how short his run was. Esposito played Gilbert Lawson, Cornelius Hawthorne’s longtime assistant and Pierce’s estranged half-brother.

Gilbert had the potential for some interesting interactions with Pierce Hawthorne, especially given that the two supposedly moved in with one another in season 4. Unfortunately, Pierce’s dwindling presence in the show likely contributed to Gilbert’s short-lived story arc, leaving much mystery about his character.

Garrett Lambert

Greendale had a lot of eccentric side characters, including cranky old Leonard, Preston Koogler, and Magnitude, to name just a few. However, if any of these supporting characters deserved a place in the study group, it would be Garrett Lambert.

Garrett’s entire character in the series was about the embodiment of weirdness. As strange as it seems, this made Garrett the perfect straight man for reacting to a lot of the study group’s misadventures. While the wedding episode will remain his crown jewel, Garrett could’ve done a lot more to really capture an outsider’s perspective on the series.

Noel Cornwallis

Of all the professors that the study group clashed with in Community, Malcolm McDowell’s Noel Cornwallis was one of the weakest. Simply put, Cornwallis was meant to be a “real professor” who clashed with Greendale’s overt zaniness.

Alan Connor

Rob Corddry portrayed Community’s Alan Connor, an associate from Jeff’s previous life as a lawyer who debuted in season 2 to remind Jeff of his old life. On one level, this made Alan representative of Jeff’s greatest fears and weaknesses as a cynical lawyer. Counting his ultimate betrayal of Jeff, Alan was also Jeff’s greatest enemy.

Unfortunately, neither of these traits carried weight for most of the series. Alan didn’t appear again until the end of season 3, where he proposed an offer that could have let Jeff leave Greendale to no avail. Alan could’ve been great as a recurring villain in the series, threatening the school with his legal know-how while constantly pushing Jeff toward the dark side, but this never materialized.

Stephen Spreck

Stephen Spreck is the ultimate arch-nemesis within Community’s hierarchy. He is the Dean of Community’s rival school, City College, and an ambitious usurper who wanted to take over Greendale and so much more.

Besides his various plots to undermine Greendale’s reputation and sabotage the school, Spreck also has an interesting rapport with Dean Pelton that seemingly ties back to some history between the two. Unfortunately, this relationship is never really unpacked, and Spreck doesn’t appear many times to fight Greendale. Even in season 4, where he’s supposedly orchestrating a grand conspiracy against Greendale, he only makes one appearance, the consequences of which are never mentioned again.