MMore than a decade since the last episode of the award-winning, fan-favorite sitcom The office displayed, your fictional universe is about to expand.
NBC Peacock streaming service announced Wednesday that will pick up a new, as-yet-untitled spinoff series from producers Greg Daniels, the writer and producer who adapted the British sitcom for U.S. audiences, and Michael Koman, known for writing for Late Night with Conan O’Brien and co-creating Nathan for you. (Koman is also married to the former The office actress Ellie Kemper.)
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, creators of the British original O Desk and the executive producers of the American adaptation that ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2013 are also set to return as executive producers of the new series – as are executive producers Howard Klein and Ben Silverman and production studio Banijay Americas (formerly known as Reveille). .
“It has been more than ten years since the final episode of The office aired on NBC, and the acclaimed comedy series continues to gain popularity and build new generations of fans on Peacock,” said Lisa Katz, president of NBCUniversal Entertainment. In 2019NBC paid around US$500 million for exclusive broadcast rights The office on Peacock, after amassing a large audience over years on Netflix. Peacock has released extended “Superfan” episodes of the show since 2020 to maintain and grow The officestreaming audience, which surpassed 57 billion minutes—more than any other program—in 2020.
Universal Television will produce the new series and production will begin in July, according to Peacock. The release date has not yet been revealed.
Here’s what we know so far about the spinoff.
What is the new show about?
The new show is neither a reboot nor a sequel to the beloved franchise. It’s also not a spinoff centered around any of the previous series’ popular on-screen characters. Instead, the new show will maintain the same mockumentary format as The office but focus on a different type of paper company.
“The documentary team that immortalized the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin is in search of a new subject when they discover a historic Midwest newspaper dying and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters,” Peacock said in its announcement. “This new series set in the Dunder Mifflin universe features a new cast of characters in a new setting ripe for comedic storytelling: a daily newspaper,” said Katz.
Who will be in the new show?
As The office— which made stars out of actors John Krasinski, Mindy Kaling, and more — the new show is set to revolve around an ensemble cast. Only two actors have been announced so far: Domhnall Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore.
Matt Winkelmeyer – Getty Images
Gleeson – an Irish actor known for his leading roles in science fiction films Ex-machine and romantic comedy It was timeas well as support functions in Star Wars It is Harry Potter films – recently co-starred alongside The officeSteve Carell’s former boss on FX psychological thriller series The patientfor which Gleeson received Critics Choice and Golden Globe nominations.
Impacciatore, an Italian actress, received critical acclaim for her recent role as hotel manager Valentina in the second season of HBO’s celebrated comedy-drama. The White Lotusfor which she shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
How did this new spinoff come about?
NBC has strived to extend the life of The office one way or another, even before it ends.
A spin-off had supposedly was under construction in 2008, with a pilot planned for the following year. Daniels worked with The office writer Michael Schur to create the new show, but the two decided that a standalone series would work better, resulting in Parks and recreationwhich premiered on NBC in 2009 without The office tie-in different from its similar mockumentary format.
Another spin-off was planned in 2012provisionally titled The farm and centered on Rainn Wilson’s character, Dwight Schrute. But NBC is over passing the pilotwhich was reissued and shown as The office17th episode of the ninth season, which yielded bad reviews.
Daniels said TV Guide in 2013 that other spin-off ideas that were scrapped included one that would have followed Ed Helms’ character Andy and his suburban family – which was later rejected Modern Family came out with a similar premise – much like those focusing on Craig Robinson’s character Darryl or another branch of Dunder Mifflin elsewhere.
In 2021, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Dakota Johnson’s appearance in the series finale The office should create a future series featuring new Dunder Mifflin employees. In 2017, TV line reported that a reboot of the show was slated for the 2018-2019 TV schedule, but it never materialized. The reboot would be set in the same Dunder Mifflin office in Scranton and would incorporate a mix of old and new cast members, minus Carell’s Michael Scott.
Carell told TIME in 2018 that he has no plans to revive his role, for which he won several acting awards. awards. “I never thought of it as a good idea,” he said. “I love it too much to want to do it again.”
Leslie David Baker, who played salesman Stanley Hudson in The officelaunched a crowdfunding campaign in 2020 to finance a web pilot episode of its proposed spinoff, Uncle Stan. The show would have followed Hudson coming out of retirement in Florida to help his nephew run a motorcycle and flower shop in Los Angeles. But in AugustBaker has returned more than $110,000 in donations from fans who tried to help him launch the show, which he said has been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and entertainment industry strikes.
News has surfaced of a new project with Daniels back in creative control last year. Daniels said The wrap in November which The office returned, it wouldn’t be a reboot, but rather something closer to Star Wars‘ spinoff shows: “I would never want to remake the same show with a different cast, because I think we have the luckiest cast, the best cast ever, on TV, to do that show,” he said.
At the time, he hinted at the direction he was thinking about: “Something like the notion of this documentary crew making a documentary about a different subject,” he said. “That, I think, can be intriguing and creative. But I don’t even know what you would call it. I don’t know if this is like a sister show or something.” Sources counted The Hollywood Reporter in January that Daniels was assembling a writers’ room to work on his new version of the series.
How did people react to the ad?
Initial reactions on social media to the announcement of the new program are mixed – especially from journalists and those who work in the real business of news media.
There is certainly some excitement. Josh Awtry, Senior Vice President of News weekPosted in X: “BRB signing a thousand peacocks.”
Meanwhile, journalist Tiffany Moustakas posted: “Available for hire as a consultant if the Office spin-off at a local newspaper needs someone to share 3 years of comic trauma!!”
O Washington PostGenetic Park posted: “’the office’ for dying newspapers is great. It’s still a paper business. Our administration is notoriously inconsistent and incompetent. and the variety of situations in which you can involve a reporter is endless.”
And Park’s colleague Herb Scribner posted: “I’ve been saying this for years. Newspaper essays can be hilarious!”
But others took issue with a specific part of the ad: “I know people love ‘The Office,’ but these creators can immediately fuck off with this ‘volunteer reporters’ premise,” said Nina Metz, TV and film critic for The Office . Chicago TribunePosted in X.
“I’ve long thought that a Parks & Rec-type show about local journalism would be a great way to help humanize reporters and show people the funny and sometimes heartbreaking quirks of a small newspaper. There are many ways to tell this story without the ‘use volunteer reporters’ plot.” Crain’s Chicago Business reporter Leigh Giangreco posted.
Washington Post media reporter Elahe Izadi posted: “my immediate opinion (and not being in the writers’ room, so what do I know!): there is comedic gold in adhering more closely to reality rather than this ‘volunteer reporter’ idea (like 3 local reporters making about 30 grand a year trying to do the job that 20 people used to do).
“The Office spin-off set in a ‘dying newspaper’ is a little too close to home to be funny,” posted Sarah Rogers, creative director at Long Lead.
Other social media users have complained that the description for the upcoming series sounds like the old series’ brand is doing most of the heavy lifting. A user posted: “this is so stupid…I like the premise of the show, I’m a fan of mockumentaries, but they don’t really need to share a universe.” And another posted: “It seems to me that Greg Daniels’ production company submitted a pitch for a new sitcom set in a newspaper and was told ‘we’ll greenlight this show if it’s called The Office.’”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
