We suppose this news was inevitable.
In the age of spinoffs, reboots, and ever-expanding franchises, a show as popular as The Office was going to return from the dead at some point.
Not only did the original series run for nine seasons on NBC, the Steve Carell-led cringe comedy has proven surprisingly successful with subsequent generations, becoming Netflix’s most-streamed show before being reclaimed by Peacock.
When a series enjoys that sort of lingering popularity with zero promotion nearly a decade since its last new episode, you can be certain that some sort of reboot is coming.
Really, the only surprise is that it took this long.
According to new intel from The Hollywood Reporter, the long-rumored Office “sequel series” is officially a go at NBCUniversal.
Not only that, the show has already cast two series leads.
Domhnall Gleeson, who’s likely best known for his role in Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker, and Sabrina Impacciatore, who received an Emmy nomination for her work in The White Lotus Season 2, have reportedly joined the staff of Dunder Mifflin.
We assume that, like the original series, this new show will be an ensemble affair, so there are likely many more casting announcements to come.
The series will be helmed by original Office creator Greg Daniels, who will be joined by Michael Korman, who was previously an executive producer on Nathen For You.
Other than that, the project is one big question mark.
We don’t even know if this thing is gonna air on NBC, Peacock, or some other platform!
Interestingly, Gleeson is no newcomer to the world of Steve Carell, as the two of them co-starred in the FX limited series The Patient.
That show revolved around Gleeson holding Carell hostage in his basement, so we’re guessing this new project will be a bit more lighthearted.
The Gleeson-Carell factor has led to rumors that the former Michael Scott will have some involvement in this new Office iteration, but like pretty much everything else about this show, that remains unconfirmed.
Daniels is said to be keeping a tight lid on the preproduction process, so many of the mysteries surrounding the show will likely remain unsolved for months to come.
In the absence of concrete information, however, questions and conversations have arisen that have less to do with the “what?” and the “when?” and the “how?” and more to do with the “why?” of it all.
The obvious answer to most of these questions is that NBCUniversal and Daniels stand to make boatloads of money by bringing The Office back to our screens.
But The Office is a show that seemed to have run out of creative steam long before it came to an end (the less said about the reign of Robert California, the better), and for most of TV history, proven showrunners like Daniels would move on to new projects that might prove even more lucrative.
Hell, the American version of The Office is already a remake of a British series.
Now we’re getting a remake of a remake! (Excuse us, a “sequel series!”)
The Office US spawned countless imitative mockumentary sitcoms, some with creative team overlap and NBC’s blessing (Parks and Rec).
Others that simply hopped on the bandwagon and never felt the need to justify why their characters would occasionally break the fourth wall in “confessional” segments. (We’re looking at you, Modern Family!)
The trend has died off (in part because network sitcoms are largely a thing of the past, but that’s a conversation for a different time), and it now looks like we’ll be seeing a revival.
Again, we don’t know if this new series will employ the mockumentary style of its predecessors, but it’d be weird to call it an Office spinoff if it didn’t!
NBCUniversal execs are likely thinking that they’ve got a guaranteed hit on their hands, and they may be right.
But it’s worth noting that the original Office was a product of its time in more ways than one.
The members of Gen Z who discovered the show on streaming platforms seemed to like that it was refreshingly old school.
And there were quite a few jokes in the original series that probably wouldn’t make it past the network’s standards and practices department these days.
(An average of about two per episode if we had to guess!)
The casting of Gleeson and Impacciatore indicates that the new series will head in a different generation and not attempt to recreate the Scranton of Jim and Pam.
But if that’s the case, why not just call it something new?
Obviously, the answer is that The Office is a respected brand, and a spinoff is likely to garner a lot more attention than a generic new workplace comedy starring Domnhall Gleeson.
We keep thinking that audiences will rebel against that sort of rebranding, but it hasn’t happened yet.
So maybe these high-paid execs know exactly what they’re doing!
Yes, The Office will fare better because of its pedigree in the same way that The Conners had an easier time finding an audience because of residual affection for Roseanne.
But the idea of a TV landscape in which every sitcom is a reheated leftover from a previous generation is a bleak one, indeed.
And we’ll continue to rail against it!
What do you think, TV fanatics? Are you excited for an Office sequel series? Or are you suffering from reboot fatigue?
Hit the comments section below to share your thoughts!
Tyler Johnson is an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic and the other Mediavine O&O sites. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, cooking, and, of course, watching TV. You can Follow him on X and email him here at TV Fanatic.
