Filming Begins! But is it for Sunny?

Sunny news broke yesterday when Charlie Day posted an Instagram video in which he was wearing what's clearly Charlie Kelly’s wardrobe, tying his shoes to the song Going the Distance, accompanied by the caption “Gearing up for season 17.” Shortly after Charlie’s post, Rob McElhenney created a remake of Charlie’s video with Mac’s shoes and posted it to his Instagram story, and a few hours later Glenn followed up with his own special version. 

All three of the “gearing up” videos, courtesy of Babygirlmac on Twitter 

While Glenn isn’t wearing any Dennis clothes we’re familiar with, Charlie and Rob definitely seem to be in wardrobe, and this is a show in its seventeenth season so for the guys to be in wardrobe means they’re very likely currently filming—But is it Sunny they’re filming? 

Seeing Charlie dressed as Charlie Kelly this morning was a shock to a lot of people, because it seems a little too soon. Besides the fact that we normally hear a rumbling or two from the Sunny crew ahead of RCG making it to set, from all the information we currently have, Sunny shouldn’t start shooting until at earliest next week.

On September 20, 2024, Glenn told us Sunny starts filming in about three weeks. Whether that be the start of the third week following September 20 (October 7) or a full three weeks following that weekend (October 14), it’s hard to justify October 2 as being about three weeks from September 20. Though, for the benefit of the doubt, let’s say it’s not impossible that Glenn may have misspoken, or maybe filming got pushed up… 

BUT there is actually a logistical impossibility for filming Sunny that currently exists.

On August 15, 2024, Kaitlin and Rob’s episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast dropped, and in that episode Kaitlin shared a fun fact about her ABC show, High Potential: it films not only on the same lot, but the same stage as Sunny. That means once High Potential wraps, they’ll clear all its sets off the sound stage to bring in all of the Sunny sets. So, if Sunny has started filming, they’ve started without the majority of their sets (Paddy’s and the Gang’s apartments), which makes very little sense. Though, say they’re shooting on-location ahead of all the sound stage scenes (it’s not unheard of, though pretty unlikely), then maybe they could have started filming Sunny… 

EXCEPT on that same Podcast, Kaitlin stated she has “three or four days off and then we go right into Sunny.” As of today, High Potential is still shooting, and funnily enough Kaitlin was the one to supply us with that information, yesterday. While the guys were sharing their gearing up videos, Kaitlin shared a photo of her nails (a cute tribute to Dee) from on set of the season finale of High Potential:

And if Kaitlin is still filming High Potential as of today and she gets a few days off after wrapping (which makes sense considering they share a stage), Sunny really has not started filming yet. The evidence is mounted against them. (Which means Glenn didn’t misspeak, though I only said that for the lead to harder evidence, not because I ever doubted him.)

So, if Rob, Charlie, and Glenn aren’t filming Sunny but they’re dressed as their Sunny characters and “gearing up” for Season 17, what could they possibly be up to?

Well, remember my first Season 17 speculation post back in July? I’m still parked right there, and more confident than ever following my conversation with Glenn about Randall Einhorn’s potential directorial return: the Abbott Elementary crossover is with Sunny. And it very well may be filming right now as Abbott actively films their fourth season and RCG are in character, a week prior to Sunny filming. 

Ok, yes, maybe I look like this to a lot of people right now:

But just know, once they finally officially announce it, you heard it here first. 8.5 episodes for Season 17, and it all starts with filming the 0.5; that’s what I’m calling.

Which means there's nothing from Paddy’s Pub just yet. I’d say give it another week or so and hopefully we get a glimpse of that shitty bar we all miss dearly. And, in the meantime, get hyped and get your bets in for Abbott Elementary plots… is a kindergarten teacher all Charlie needs to be able to adapt to reading?

News, news, news, every day there's news...

-Seth