There may yet be more work to do in the offices of Dunder Mifflin, as a return to The Office appears to be on the cards for NBC. A report from Deadline has indicated that Greg Daniels, who was in charge of adapting The Office for American audiences after the phenomenal success of the original BBC series from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, has drafted a team of writers to set up a development room with the intention of crafting a new show which will be a spiritual successor to the hit NBC comedy.
The report indicates that some sort of follow up has been a priority for NBCUniversal for some time, particularly if Daniels is involved in the making of it. Given the ratings the show garnered while airing, as well as the second life it found via syndication, and particularly its success on streaming platforms, it’s not hard to see why. The news shows that discussions behind the scenes have progressed notably in the months following a conversation Daniels had with Collider Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub for Prime Video’s Upload Season 3, where he indicated that there was nothing imminent, but if there was news, he would be the one to share it.
“Well, I think that it’s very speculative. The fact that it kind of blew up based on one line in a Puck piece was kind of cool, I guess, in the sense that the fans still care a lot. But the thing I would say is, when there’s something to announce, I will definitely announce it.”
Greg Daniels Wants an ‘Office’ Follow-Up to Feel Fresh
A month later, while speaking with The Wrap, Daniels revealed he didn’t want to go over old ground with the series and that something new would have to be done in order to keep the show feeling fresh and exciting. “I don’t like to think of anything as a reboot, you know what I mean? Because I feel like we ended that story beautifully,” he explained.
“The characters had closure. I would never want to redo that same show with a different cast, because I think we got the luckiest cast, the best cast ever, in TV, to do that show. So the notion of a reboot is not of interest. The notion of maybe something like the way ‘The Mandalorian’ is a new show in the Star Wars universe, you know what I mean? Something like the notion of this documentary crew doing a documentary about a different subject. That, I think, could be intriguing and creative.”
The Office is available to stream on Peacock in the U.S. Stay tuned at Collider for further news on the new spin-off series.
