The looming end of the writer’s strike means a steadier return to the casting rumors and project announcements that have the power to distract, thrill, annoy… all the emotions, really. Normality is coming back, baby, and it’s making its return felt with news of a reboot of The Office. Not just a reboot, but one being led by the original creator of the US version, Greg Daniels.
Unfortunately, there really isn’t much more to report at this stage. Puck nestled the news in a great article about post-strike Hollywood, making it feel like a sort-of announcement about the announcement, but nothing but restraint could stop us from speculating further. And after months of waiting to dive into this kind of news on a regular basis, we are plum out of restraint. So, let’s take a look at The Office as a whole and contemplate which characters could actually make their way back (we are, obviously, assuming this new show takes place in Scranton and Dunder Mifflin). If nothing else, it’ll kill some time and provide an interesting test case for our powers of prediction when full details emerge.
— We begin with a harsh reality: Michael Scott is not coming through that door. It’s true that Steve Carell reunited with Daniels to co-create the ill-fated Space Force, but despite the professional bond, I just can’t see either of them wanting to, once again, try to better Michael’s perfect original exit from The Office. His appearance in the finale was inevitable, but also enough of a garnish so as to not be distracting. This would be a whole new chapter. Maybe that’s a challenge that would excite the creator and the star, but I just can’t see it.
— I think we can also dismiss the idea that Jim Halpert will make any kind of return. Like Carell, post-Office life has been good to John Krasinski as he turned into an action guy and continued to focus on his ambitions behind the camera. And as with Michael, I don’t think there’s much more story to tell with Jim. He and Pam went through hell but came out the other side of it. He and Dwight long ago forged a bond, and he got the career of his dreams leaving Dunder Mifflin in the rearview. To see Jim back in Scranton would be kind of tragic after all that growth. You can say that about a lot of characters on the show, which is going to be a challenge for Daniels.
— Pam Beasley is a character I’d actually love to check in on, but you can’t get Pam without Jim, just from a fan standpoint. It would break people’s brains if Pam and Jim had split or if she was in Scranton and he was elsewhere. Season 9 was a lot for a lot of people (I liked it!) and I don’t think Daniels would want to re-experience that kind of blowback at the start of this new incarnation. But Pam, to me, had a story that was a little unsettled. I’d like to know she’s happy and creatively fulfilled. I just don’t know how you do that beyond a guest spot.
— Alright, everything has been very negative so far. Let’s turn things around. Dwight Schrute makes a lot of sense for the assumed idea of this show. First, they already tried to do an Office spin-off with Dwight and the beet farm as the previous show was ending, so we know Rainn Wilson was open to still playing Dwight back then. He’s also made comments as recently as April about playing the character again. So we’re saying he’s in if there’s an opportunity. And there needs to be. This show needs a familiar anchor, but there’s also a lot of comedic potential here. Let’s all ponder Dwight’s brain trying to contemplate the world of remote work, reconfigured rules of workplace decorum, and the flood of online conspiracy theories.
— Andy Bernard. No. Please. Andy was a one-dimensional character that got over-extended to the point that he lost all shape and appeal. Yuppy slime brown noster, the proto-Tom Wambsgans from Succession. And then he became, for lack of a nicer description, Michael Scott without the heart and soul. I don’t see a place for Andy on the show after his dance with viral stardom. He’s a ridiculous character now. If he’s back, it says something about this new version’s sense of itself and its relationship to absurdity.
Alright, that’s the main cast. From here on, we’re gonna bundle.
— Stanley, Phyliss, Creed, Meredith, Oscar, Kevin, Angela, and Daryl — the legendary supporting ensemble. Some of these characters are likely retired (Stanley, Phyliss), so it might strain reality to see them riding a desk still. But don’t discount the possibility that we might see a couple. My money is on Oscar and Angela. Maybe Kevin, because what else is he going to do?
Angela’s chilly reception for all shenanigans and iron-fisted rule got mined for so many laughs over the years, but Angela Kinsey also played the hell out of the moments when the character’s world was shifting beneath her. The resulting Oscar/Angela friendship was one of the show’s best and most tender pivots. Also, Oscar was one of the show’s few adults in the room, and you need that balance.
I’d love more Creed too, but his hilarious ending makes that harder to pull off. Though, in a way, it’s almost too perfect to see Creed hiding in plain sight under a different name in the same office. Daryl is, like Jim, probably too busy living large to drop into his old job. This is what I mean when I say some characters coming back would feel like failures. Also, Craig Robinson is killing it on Killing It, so he probably doesn’t have the time for anything ongoing.
— The annex crew of Ryan, Kelly, and Toby — BJ Novak and Mindy Kaling have probably outgrown their roles on the show and bringing them back from the events of the finale would feel like a shark jump. The Dwight/Toby relationship was nearly as adversarial as the Michael/Toby one. It would be fun to pick that up again if both return.
— The New Class — Erin, Gabe…sorta Jim? Kinda Dwight? Is that cruel? Jake Lacy and Clark Duke did good things with what they were given, but they never felt like unique characters, just amalgamations of what had worked previously. If anything, I’m hoping their middling reception serves as a lesson to not populate this new show with knock-offs of classic ones. Ellie Kemper’s Erin was unique enough to avoid direct Pam comparisons, but she didn’t seem prime for growth, putting her in the sad category if she returned to Scranton.
We are Zach Woods fans here. Seeing the Silicon Valley alum return as an office pest would be amazing. In a lot of ways, Gabe felt like an Andy clone, only assembled from the worst (best) pieces. Without the narrative ambition to hang the show on him and make him likable, Woods absolutely cooked and would do so again.
So, there we have it. While there are some other recurring characters that could pop in to really make this thing sing — a Robert California sighting! Jan ! David Wallace! — this rumored project will surely rise or fall based on who Daniels chooses from the core cast (if anyone). We can’t wait to see how he and his team rise to the challenge of that task, mixing the old and the new, and avoiding the nostalgia overload trap that has sunk other reboots.