The Office Creator Greg Daniels Addresses Reboot Rumors & Fans Won't Be Happy
Immediately following the resolution of the Writers Guild of America strike, a rumor emerged that a reboot of "The Office" was in the works. Such news brought joy or confusion depending on whom you asked, but there was reason to be optimistic since the report also claimed the show's creator, Greg Daniels, would be attached to the new series. Now, Daniels is commenting on it, with not much clarity being added.
Speaking with Collider, Daniels spoke about how any notion of an "Office" continuation is still up in the air: "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."
With that, fans probably shouldn't get their hopes up just yet. It makes sense NBCUniversal would be interested in doing more with "The Office," seeing how it's continued in popularity even a decade after it ended. Hopefully, if an "Office" reboot does eventually get off the ground, it does justice to the original series while keeping fans happy.
Could an Office reboot capture the magic of the U.S. original?
With everything from "Frasier" to "Goosebumps" getting rebooted, a revival of "The Office" seems like only a matter of time. And Greg Daniels has been discussing the possibility for a while now. In a separate interview with Collider in 2022, Daniels expounded on some thoughts he had on what an "Office" reboot should look like: "I can't tell whether fans would want more of it, and when I say more of it, I don't think it would be the same characters. I think it would just be sort of like an extension of the universe ... the way '[The] Mandalorian' is like an extension of 'Star Wars.' But I don't know if that would be something people would want or not. It's hard to tell."
The comparison to "The Mandalorian" is interesting because it implies the 1st season would be a mostly separate thing from everything else, but gradually, recognizable characters would enter the fray. Regardless, there are no details of what a new "Office" show would look like. It could be entirely new or pick up with a new business, perhaps with one or two old cast members, as was pitched by Leslie David Baker for a potential Stanley spinoff that seems stuck in limbo.
But there's certainly material out there for a new take on "The Office." Since the sitcom went off the air, a lot has changed in American workplaces, most notably with the rise in remote work. Those behind the scenes are surely working to make an "Office" revival work without tarnishing the legacy of the first (or technically second when accounting for the U.K. "Office"). The right story just needs to come along.