It’s a return to the office mandate.
“The Office” spinoff show is officially happening. On Wednesday, Peacock announced that the untitled new comedy will hail from Greg Daniels (who adapted the original NBC show) and “Nathan for You” co-creator Michael Koman.
Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson, 40 (“About Time,”) and Italian actress Sabrina Impacciatore, 56 (“The White Lotus”) will lead an ensemble cast. It’s not clear yet if either (or both) of them will be in a boss role, similar to Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) or if they’ll perhaps be this show’s version of a star-crossed couple Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fisher).
Ironically, Gleeson has previously terrorized Carrell onscreen (in Hulu’s “The Patient”).
The show isn’t returning to Scranton, Pennsylvania. Per Peacock’s description, this spinoff will be set in the same world, following different characters in the Midwest.
“The documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch is in search of a new subject when they discover a dying historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters,” according to Peacock.
“It’s been more than ten years since the final episode of The Office aired on NBC, and the acclaimed comedy series continues to gain popularity and build new generations of fans on Peacock,” Lisa Katz, President, NBCUniversal Entertainment, told Peacock in a statement.
“In partnership with Universal Television and led by the creative team of Greg Daniels and Michael Koman, this new series set in the universe of Dunder Mifflin introduces a new cast of characters in a fresh setting ripe for comedic storytelling: a daily newspaper.”
Original UK “The Office” creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are onboard as producers.
The original American “The Office” aired on NBC from 2005-2013 for a whopping nine seasons and 201 episodes, launching actors such as Carrell, Krasinski and Mindy Kaling to stardom.
The original mockumentary followed the daily lives and antics of employees at a paper company, including blowhard boss Michael, perpetually flirting Jim and Pam, eccentric Dwight (Rainn Wilson), chilly Angela (Angela Kinsey) and frequently exasperated Oscar (Oscar Nunez), among others.
In the book, “Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of ‘The Office’” by Brian Baumgartner (who played Kevin) and Ben Silverman, an executive producer the cast and crew dish about how the show began as a scrappy underdog with little support from its network — including regular messages that it was getting the axe — low ratings and mass skepticism.
Throughout Season 1, which snared fewer than 5 million viewers per week — dismal for network TV at the time — an NBC executive frequently came to the set to inform everyone that the current episode would be the end of the series.
“He was like, ‘This will be the last one … It’s just not getting the ratings and the network doesn’t get it.’ He said that every week of the first season,’” Krasinski recalled in the book.
“NBC didn’t give enough of a sh-t to even pay attention to it,” Silverman said, adding that when he begged then-network president Jeff Zucker to renew the show for Season 2, “I was thrown out of his office.”
Production on the untitled spinoff series will start in July.
The new show will premiere on Peacock on an unannounced date.
