Today was the much-anticipated/slightly sickly dreaded Community panel at Comic-Con, and first the good news: Replacement showrunners David Guarascio and Moses Port were not torn asunder by incensed fans, their ragged limbs repurposed into props for someone's Walking Dead costume. So, that's nice. But also, they promised with the utmost sincerity not to fuck up everything you love about the show, even though Dan Harmon is gone and you've already begun wading out into the ocean to let it sweep you to your briny doom. "Nooo, turn back!" they said, but more accurately saying, "The only thing we care about is keeping it this weird, wonderful gem that it's always been. That's not gonna change."
Our Comic-Con reporter Todd VanDerWerff may have some more thoughts later, provided his write-up isn't all about the For Better Or Worse panel (and, uh, it might be), but here are some of the other things the cast and new crew promised for the fourth season: the introduction of Jeff's long-discussed dad, whom Joel McHale joked, we think, will be played by Eddie Murphy ("Pluto Nash himself"); a peek into the equally mythical mansion where Pierce lives; a return visit from the foosball-obsessed Germans; even more animated sequences; and a visit to the Inspector Spacetime convention (which probably especially excited the woman who came to the Q&A dressed as "the fifth Inspector"). Above all, however, the season will hopefully prove that Port isn't lying when he says, "We're not going to screw it up"—even as the show's fourth year pushes the characters toward inevitable graduation, which is definitely going to happen.
On that, Guarascio says that the show is now able to keep going "even if they're not all at school at the same time," because they've formed relationships that go beyond Greendale, and also because Jeff and Britta are going to get married and move across the hall from Troy, Abed, and Annie, and then they all open a pizza place together. Hey, we made up that last part. Don't throw yourself into the angry sea.