A new teaser for the highly anticipated crossover episode of Abbott Elementary has been released, confirming that a few familiar faces from the long-running comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will be visiting Willard R. Abbott Elementary. The video was crossposted on Abbott Elementary star Quinta Brunson and Always Sunny’s Rob McElhenney‘s Instagram accounts with the caption: “Philly’s a small city.”
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The teaser shows a humorous sign-in sheet for Aboott before five visitor badges for the school are printed out, naming Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day), Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito), Deandra Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson), Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton), and Ronald McDonald, aka Mac (McElhenney).
The crossover episode will serve as the return of Abbott Elementary Season 4 following the comedy’s winter break. Episode 9 will air on ABC on January 8th, 2025, and stream on Hulu. Details about the episode and why the Always Sunny gang is visiting have not yet been released, but the crossover event was first teased in July 2024 during San Diego Comic-Con.
Speaking to the crowd during the show’s panel, Brunson said (via Variety), “We will be doing an interesting crossover this season. I’m not gonna tell you with who, or with what, or where, or when, but it’s really exciting and I think it’ll change television as we know it.”
In October 2024, Variety confirmed that the crossover had expanded into a two-episode event with Abbott Elementary teachers heading to Paddy’s Pub sometime in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s upcoming Season 17.
“It was very fun,” Olson said about filming the Abbott Elementary crossover episode, adding, “And they’ll be jumping into our world in a couple of weeks, which is very exciting. So it’s been really fun for both of our casts to be able to do, them a cable show and us a network show.”
The biggest question on everyone’s mind is how exactly the characters from wildly different worlds will converge during the crossover episodes beyond both shows taking place in Philadelphia. Executive producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker revealed to Variety that Charlie’s character will have a “pretty significant storyline” in the episode. They also admitted that the idea of a crossover was initially “kind of a joke” as the shows are “a real tonal mishmash.”
“But then Rob [McElhenney] and Charlie [Day] came to our writers room and we hashed out some real broad stroke ideas,” Shumacker said. “From there, we emailed back and forth beat sheets and then an outline. They were super game for everything. All those concerns that we had about the tones of the shows butting against each other were alleviated the second we started filming with Charlie.”
Abbott Elementary’s Tyler James Williams acknowledged to TV Insider the concerns over how the two comedy series will combine their distinctive tones, but was quick to reveal that “it’s uncanny how well it works.”
“[We’ve] come together and can just find that comedic language together,” Williams said. “It’s really crazy how well the pairings work… There’s some really interesting ones here. And that’s what’s been really fun.”
The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series has never shied away from surprising fans with unexpected appearances. A special post-Oscars episode of Abbott Elementary in March 2024 featured a cameo by Bradley Cooper. The actor even did the voice of his popular Marvel character Rocket Raccoon when a student mistakenly wondered if Cooper appeared in Spider-Man.
Abbott Elementary and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia are available to stream on Hulu. New episodes of Abbott Elementary air weekly on Wednesday nights on ABC.
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