Is Community Part Of The Marvel Cinematic Universe? Let's Play Fan Theory Detective
It's strange to think about, but a lot of pop culture nowadays is an indirect result of Dan Harmon. The once uniquely meta comedic sensibilities of both his big shows have since bled into a large part of the entire superhero genre, not just because of the shows' influence but because so many of the screenwriters and directors behind both shows have gone on to work on Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Before the Russo Brothers made "Avengers: Endgame," they were directing some of the paintball episodes of "Community." Before he wrote "Ant-Man: Quantumania," Jeff Loveness was writing that "Vat of Acid" episode of "Rick and Morty."
And although Harmon's shows constantly throw in digs at the MCU — most notably, Jeff and Annie repeatedly disparage those "flavorless, unremarkable Marvel moves" in the series finale — the actors don't seem to share the same disapproval. Danny Pudi, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong, Yvette Nicole Brown, Donald Glover, and Brie Larson have all made MCU appearances. Even Joel McHale got his own cameo in "Spider-Man 2," playing the smarmy banker who denies Peter and Aunt May a loan. (Thanks to "No Way Home," this now sort of kind of counts as an MCU appearance.)
So, is it possible that the universes of "Community" and the MCU are somehow the same? Short answer: no, definitely not. The longer, more profitable answer: perhaps. It may seem silly to look too deep into this, but I'm the same guy who dedicated 4,000 words to figuring out the identity of the Ass Crack Bandit, so silliness is not an issue for me. But first, let's look at the origin of this theory.
Another one of Abed's adventures?
This all started in 2021 when Reddit user LogicDog posted their take on r/FanTheories, providing potential explanations for how actors in each universe could actually be the same person. For Abed, LogicDog explained, "Abed had a relationship with an FBI agent (seen in 'Community'), which gave him a connection to the government and he eventually became a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, as we see later in 'The Winter Soldier.' This makes sense, as S.H.I.E.L.D. is shown to recruit gifted or exceptional individuals in the 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' TV show."
This still doesn't explain why Danny Pudi's character in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" doesn't act like the Abed we all know and love, but it doesn't have to. As we've seen plenty of times throughout the show, Abed is perfectly capable of pretending to be a different person for extended periods of time, enough to fool Jeff into thinking he's permanently changed his ways. The agent we meet in "Winter Soldier" could easily be Abed pulling off one of his many extended ruses.
But as Abed's monologue about being on the set of "Cougar Town" tells us, Abed's fatal flaw is that he still sometimes has trouble telling TV and reality apart. When he got the chance to become Chad, a background character in "Cougar Town," it nearly broke his brain, just like how he could've been stuck inside a claymation world forever in "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" if the study group hadn't intervened. It's possible that the Abed in "The Winter Soldier" has genuinely forgotten his Greendale roots, and somebody from the study group needs to snap him out of it. Luckily, there's another study group member in the position to do so...
Where's alternate universe Jeff?
There's one major hole to Jeff's involvement with the MCU: Jeff couldn't have ever been a banker in 2004, because we know he was practicing law as early as 2002. As fans of the pilot can recall, that was the year Jeff helped Professor Duncan wriggle his way out of a DUI by connecting the incident to 9/11. "2002 was a simpler time," Jeff remarked, but was it a simpler time for him specifically? Because it sounds like he was juggling two different jobs. Sure, Jeff being a banker by day, and a lawyer by night would explain how he had enough savings to provide for himself for those four years as a full-time community college student, but it's still a little hard to believe.
Luckily, LogicDog has a simple explanation for this: "The Multiverse Episode of 'Community' helps strengthen the larger theory at play here," the Redditor said, "and also allows me to say that an alternate reality Jeff Winger is the bank manager in 'Spider-Man 2.'"
In both "Community" and the "MCU," it's established that something as simple as rolling a die will create multiple different timelines, which will all have massive butterfly effects in their respective universes. Jeff rolling a one in "Remedial Chaos Theory" resulted in him losing an arm, so who can say what sort of crazy stuff could've happened as the result of Jeff rolling a dice back when he was a small child? It's easy to imagine an alternate Jeff never having that foosball incident with Shirley as a child and never becoming a sleazy lawyer as a result.
How Troy ended up as Aaron Davis
Of all the "Community" characters' appearances in the MCU, Donald Glover's role as Aaron Davis in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" is the hardest to explain. Troy was a loveable goofball from Colorado, so how is he a calm, collected New York City criminal? Well, the inquisitive LogicDog's got an answer for that too: "After having his money [and] boat stolen by pirates ... Troy changes his name, reconnects with some distant family, and tries to buy a gun so he won't be robbed again."
The user also notes that Troy had extended interactions with the Greendale Air Conditioner Repair School, a "powerful secret cult that has been subtly influencing humanity throughout history; very similar to HYDRA in many ways." That's why it's a bit of a tragedy that Davis never ends up hanging out with Abed at S.H.I.E.L.D., the secret organization that turned out to be controlled by HYDRA in "The Winter Soldier."
Fans of the sitcom have been waiting for an Abed/Troy reunion for nearly a decade at this point, so it's devastating to think that they might exist within the same universe and still never meet. It reminds us of Troy's line in the "Community" season 4 origin story episode, where he says to Abed, outraged, "You were out there somewhere and you weren't looking for me?" Let's hope they look for each other again.
But perhaps the most troubling piece of information is the Easter egg in 2012's "The Amazing Spider-Man," in which a poster of Troy Barnes is shown in Peter Parker's room. Again, the multiverse theory helps us out here: it seems like Troy exists in the MCU Peter's universe, but Andrew Garfield's universe is much closer to our own and thus has its own version of "Community" as well.
The other cast members
Jim Rash's appearance as the Dean of MIT in "Captain America: Civil War" is the easiest of all of these to explain — Craig Pelton must've gotten lucky and scored a job as the Dean of another school (one that's not so unsophisticated that a dog couldn't get a degree), but is still basically his same old Dean self. Meanwhile, Yvette Nicole Brown plays Phyllis Jenkins in "Avengers: Endgame," an agent working for S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1970. LogicDog attributes this to Jenkins being Shirley's mother.
Ken Jeong also appears in "Endgame" as a security guard, which is another easy one. After all, Kevin Chang did already work as a security guard at Greendale, so it's not a surprise he managed to get a job at S.H.I.E.L.D. at some other point in his life. (Let's just hope he doesn't try to burn this particular facility down.)
And then of course there's Brie Larson, who played Abed's girlfriend in the sitcom and Captain Marvel in the MCU. "This however could easily be explained since Skrulls had seen Carol in the '90s, impersonated her, and ended up stranded here," LogicDog explained, "occasionally using her face since they know she's likely not even on this planet." This would help to explain Rachel's connection with Abed on the show — just as Abed's observing the people around him from his outside status, so is Rachel. It almost makes too much sense!
To keep in mind: these characters are already superheroes
I know what you're thinking: this theory only works if you pretend not to understand anything about how film and TV work. That may be so, but let's throw another piece of evidence into this: the characters on "Community" are regularly shown to have superhero-like capabilities, the sort that would make them fit perfectly within the Marvel universe.
I mean, just look at those paintball episodes. The season 6 one features Jeff doing an absurdly cool somersault where he grabs a paintball gun mid-flip and shoots a guy while sliding across the study room table — Black Widow would be so proud. The same episode features the Dean taking down a whole bunch of goons in an elevator because Greendale has an elevator all of a sudden. It serves as an homage to the elevator fight sequence in "The Winter Soldier," and a reminder that any of these characters can hold their own in the Marvel universe, where these sorts of fighting skills are a necessary daily requirement.
The study group also has the unique, low-key superpower of being able to subtly bend the universe to their will. As Abed himself has pointed out, it doesn't make sense how a bunch of full-time students can casually afford rent without having any other jobs we can see, and as other side-characters have pointed out, everything that happens in the school somehow revolves entirely around this one particular study group.
When a fake therapist points this all out in season 3, he nearly convinces the group they've been in a psych ward this whole time. He may have been lying, but the fact that his theory held up for as long as it did just shows how malleable the study group's reality is.
Maybe that's why the movie's taking so long
Fans have been patiently waiting for the "Community" movie, but so far the details have been few and far between, and production has been delayed. Could this be because there's been a historic writers' strike going on? Yes, but let's ignore that for a second. Maybe the long wait has not been because the cast and crew have so many scheduling conflicts, but because the writers are trying to deal with the complications of the study group also existing in the Marvel universe.
This has all been exacerbated by the recent "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," which establishes that animation is not just a medium in which the story is told, but is literally what each individual universe looks like. That's why Donald Glover can show up as a live-action Prowler in a scene next to a bunch of cartoon characters, and everyone in the scene will see each other exactly as we the audience see them.
So, assuming this Prowler really is our Troy, imagine how confusing this all must be for him. Remember how devastated he was when Abed tricked him into briefly believing he could enter a world of cartoons? Well, what's he going to say to Abed now that he knows that this is literally possible?
It's a complicated, dramatic situation, made more complicated by the realization that, of the hundreds of Spider-People Troy got to see in this movie, the vast majority of them are 2D characters. Not only is living in a cartoon possible, but cartoons appear to be the default. If the study group really is part of the Marvel universe, Troy's going to have a lot to say when the movie lets the group reunite.