‘Community’ Season 6 Photos: Keith David and Paget Brewster Join the Greendale Gang

Curious though we are if NBC’s ‘Community’ will feel the same when season 6 debuts on Yahoo Screen next year, our first look at the Greendale Gang’s latest adventures look right at home. The first photos of the new season have arrived, as guest stars Keith David and Paget Brewster tread some familiar ground, but make fine additions to the ‘Community’ cast.

TVGuide provided the first new images of the season, one of which features ‘Criminal Minds’ star Brewster as Francesca “Frankie” Dart, a consultant hired to help shape up Greendale, ostensibly to fill the moral center role vacated by Yvette Nicole Brown’s Shirley. Frankie butts heads with Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) and the other characters, of which Dan Harmon says “we wanted to have a female character that represented the threat of disappointment. Someone who, if you make the wrong move, you could let them down.”

The second photo features ‘Enlisted’ star Keith David as Elroy Patashnik, a washed-up inventor who enrolls at Greendale to reinvent himself. Harmon acknowledge that the character’s age essentially filled the role once vacated by Chevy Chase’s Pierce Hawthorne, and subsequently in season 6 by Jonathan Banks’ Buzz Hickey, as the actor returns to the role of Mike Ehrmantraut for ‘Breaking Bad’ prequel spinoff ‘Better Call Saul.’

As to either actor having previously taken part in the series, between Brewster’s Greendale IT character last season, or David’s narration of season 3's “Pillows and Blankets,” Harmon jokes that ‘Deadwood’ creator “David Milch does it, so we can do it.” Keith David’s Elroy Patashnik (as well as Britta’s parents, played by Martin Mull and Lesley Ann Warren) will appear in the Yahoo Screen season’s second episode, as directed by Jim Rash and frequent collaborator Nat Faxon.

Elsewhere, we know of ‘Community’ season 6 that creator Dan Harmon and executive producer Chris McKenna will remain at the helm, while cast members Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, and Ken Jeong have all signed on to return. Dan Harmon suggested that John Oliver could potentially return as ‘Last Week Tonight’ allowed, while any inclusion of Donald Glover might be reserved for the seemingly inevitable movie.

‘Captain America’ directors Joe and Anthony Russo will return to helm the premiere, while Harmon himself has suggested we might see the ‘Community’ season 6 in early 2015. Production is also expected to keep the series in a weekly format, rather than Netflix’s “all at once” model. In the meantime, what say you? Are you happy to see ‘Community’ returning in the latest look? What do you hope to see by the Greendale gang’s 2015 return? Check out the first ‘Community’ season 6 photos below, and give us your thoughts in the comments!