Joel McHale on 'Community'

With all the news surrounding Community lately, what with the reinstatement of Dan Harmon, Harmon’s podcast comments, and Harmon’s subsequent apology for his podcast comments, there’s a lot of intrigue surrounding the upcoming fifth season. Still, when we talked to Joel McHale yesterday, while he was promoting his new Klondike Celebrity Challenge, he seemed incredibly excited and ready to get back to work.

“With Dan Harmon back, it is really the sky’s the limit,” said McHale. “I don’t know what to expect. I mean, I know what to expect with Dan in that I know the scripts are gonna be dynamite and they will be absolutely unique and original, but I really don’t know what they have come up with.”

McHale said he “trusts Dan’s creativity implicitly,” and joked that the gang should start the new season on a space-station and then have to explain how all the characters got there.

And what about Harmon’s recent comments about his unpleasant experience of watching season 4? Well, McHale made a point to say that Harmon had apologized and that it’s all really water under the bridge now. “[Dan] has said in his interviews [that] he wants to write the hell out of this season, so that’s what I focus on and am very thrilled about. So yeah, that’s kind of how I see it. I mean Dan has said stuff before during his podcasts so…. You know, I think finally once we premiere, [then] I think people will care about the episodes more than anything.”

McHale also discussed the movie he’s currently filming, Beware the Night, where he takes on a more serious role. “I’m thrilled to be doing the role, because it is a lot different than what most people see me do,” said McHale, who plays an ex-Army Ranger turned cop in the Bronx. “My character loves knives and that’s his weapon of choice — as a cop — so he’s a little bit nuts.”

The movie required McHale to be in top physical condition, especially since he’s working opposite “freaking Eric Bana.”

“He got his start in stand-up comedy in Australia. Nobody really realizes that,” McHale said about his co-star. “He’s just one of those guys that can do it all.”

Watch the director’s cut of his Klondike commercial below: