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Last fall, there was a Puck News post with a very brief mention that The Office showrunner Greg Daniels was “set to do a reboot.” Naturally, this tiny bit of news blew up online, prompting Daniels to eventually comment that the plans were “very speculative” but that he’d prefer to do a “sister show” set within the Dunder Mifflin universe rather than a complete reboot of The Office. Well, Deadline has a little bit more information about the non-reboot. According to their sources, Daniels set up a development room with his writers this week to brainstorm different ideas for a new series.
Greg Daniels, who adapted NBC‘s The Office for American audiences based on the hit BBC series of the same name from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, is setting up a development room with his trusted writers, sources tell Deadline. The potential new series, which is not a reboot, would likely be set in a new office with new characters but live within the same world as the Steve Carell-led mockumentary series which follows employees at the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
A documentary crew doing a documentary about a different subject is a possibility as a premise for a possible Office universe extension, Daniels has said.
NBCU top executives have stated many times that they would be interested in a new incarnation of The Office if Daniels has a take. This is no surprise given what a hit his series for NBC was and the life of its own it’s taken in syndication and especially in streaming.
Conversations about continuing the series have been floating around nearly since the show ended. While Daniels has stressed multiple times that he would not be interested in rebooting the series and revisiting the original characters with new actors, he has been open to continuing it in some way. Opening up a development room with some of his closest collaborators seems like a big step forward in making that a reality. However, it’s important to note that this is a very early development that could lead to a winning idea or nowhere at all, which is typical at this stage.
While individual original cast members could presumably pop up in a new franchise series, a full-blown reunion appears to be out of the question. B.J. Novak, who was also a writer on the American series, previously told Deadline, “Definitely you wouldn’t get everyone back together, that ship has sailed.”
While I’m leery of jumping back into that world, I’ll lean into the idea for now. I’m intrigued about what ideas they could be kicking around, though. Last time we talked about this, there were some great suggestions in the comments. My favorite ideas were “The Farm,” which focused on Dwight, Angela, Moses, and the Schrute family farm’s eclectic workers and equally eccentric, intense rivals. Maybe expand the business beyond just beat farming to include a bed & breakfast? It could be funny if it didn’t become a caricature of the original characters we know and love. There was also an intriguing suggestion about having a documentary crew follow Bob Vance and Vance Refrigeration around. If they went that route, they could bring in the other members of the “Five Families” of business owners in Scranton Business Park, the warehouse workers, and business park owner Dwight. There’s also probably tons of good ideas out there that don’t involve Dwight at all, haha. Okay, fine. I’ll reluctantly admit that perhaps this non-reboot could be fun if it’s done right.
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