With so many iconic shows getting revived or rebooted in some fashion or another, rumors that we might see a return of The Office have been swirling for years. And they’ve picked up again following the end of the five month-long writers’ strike last month—but what’s actually happening?
The Office originally ran for nine seasons between 2005 and 2013 as part of NBC’s comedy programming block. It was an adaptation of the UK series of the same name created by and starring Ricky Gervais in 2001, with Steve Carrell taking over the equivalent of Gervais’ role in the U.S. NBC’s version launched or solidified the careers of actors like John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling, B.J. Novak, and many others, and is still heavily quoted and well-loved today.
Is a reboot of ‘The Office’ on the way?
At the end of September, an article from Puck speculating about what might be next for Hollywood following the end of the writers’ strike suggested Greg Daniels, who served as showrunner for The Office in the U.S., would be bringing the series back.
“Greg Daniels is set to do a reboot of The Office, for instance,” journalists Matthew Belloni and Jonathan Handel wrote. “Disney’s Dana Walden will finally be able to announce the return of her BFF Ryan Murphy from Netflix. A ton of high-profile movie scripts will come in. The industry will chug back to normal.”
The internet soon exploded with people proclaiming that—for better or for worse—a return of The Office was imminent. But Belloni later clarified his comments, and it sounds like things are far more up in the air than was initially believed.
“Right before the strike, Daniels was closing a pact to return to the [mockumentary] format and see if he can come up with something worth making,” he said. “Now, post-strike, he’ll close the deal and do just that. NBC and Universal Television, which licensed the format from creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, would certainly love to make a new version; they’ve been talking about it for years. But this is still a waaays away.”
What could a reboot of ‘The Office’ look like?
Belloni claimed NBC and Universal would be on board with bringing back one of their most popular modern-ish sitcoms, which makes sense, but what about the original cast and creative team?
A number of the original cast members have actually been supportive of the idea in the past, according to ScreenRant, but whether that’s lip service or something they would actually be interested in revisiting as actors is likely to remain unknown until offers start rolling in.
Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin, once admitted that the idea of a reboot was “confusing” to him, “because what are we rebooting?”
Most of the characters went their separate ways by the end of the show, and bringing them all back to the offices of Dunder Mifflin together likely wouldn’t make much sense. So that leaves another familiar option—bringing in an altogether new cast, either as a complete reboot set in a new world or as a continuation where various original cast members would theoretically be able to stop by, as Hulu recently did with How I Met Your Father.
Fans’ opinions on the matter have remained split, but with a recognizable title, it wouldn’t be surprising if NBC eventually put a reboot of some sort into production. Although, if the potential show ends up being something in a new office, with a brand new cast, it’s hard not to wish that they would just ditch the title and have Daniels or whomever create something brand new that’s allowed to stand on its own without the inevitable comparisons the familiar name of The Office would bring.