The newest revival of “The Office” has officially been picked up by Peacock, according to Deadline.
Here’s everything we know about “The Office” revival, including the cast, plot and whether original actors will be involved.
‘The Office’ revival gets picked up by Peacock
According to Deadline, Peacock has officially ordered a season of “The Office” revival, co-created by Greg Daniels and Michael Koman. Production for the show will begin in July.
The news comes with some details about the plot. Per Deadline, the revival will find “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.”
Lisa Katz, president of NBCUniversal Entertainment, said in a statement, per Deadline, “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.”
Is ‘The Office’ getting rebooted?
In other words, “The Office” isn’t getting reboot, but is instead getting a revival.
What’s the difference?
A reboot is a retelling of the same story, but with a modern or fresh twist. It’d have essentially the same plot and the same characters, but with a different cast.
A revival, on the other hand, is a continuation of a story. It can either revisit the same characters after the original show ended or it can be set in the same universe as the show, but follow different characters.
Greg Daniels, co-creator of “The Office,” likened “The Office” revival to “The Mandalorian” in an interview with TheWrap last November.
“I don’t like to think of anything as a reboot, you know what I mean?” Daniels told TheWrap. “Because I feel like we ended that story beautifully. The characters had closure.”
He continued, “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.”
Daniels explained that the revival would be more similar to the many “Star Wars” spin-off shows: Set in the same world, but following different characters.
“The notion of maybe something like the way ‘The Mandalorian’ is a new show in the Star Wars universe, you know what I mean?” Daniels told TheWrap. “Something like the notion of this documentary crew doing a documentary about a different subject.”
‘The Office’ revival cast
Last month, it was announced that Domhnall Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore are joining the cast, per Variety. “They would occupy two roles in what would be an ensemble cast, like the original versions of the show.”
Gleeson is best-known for his roles in the movies “About Time,” “Peter Rabbit” and “Ex Machina,” and he played General Hux in the recent “Star Wars” trilogy. He is starring in PBS’s new show, “Alice & Jack.”
Impacciatore is an Italian actress who recently starred in “The White Lotus” Season 2 and received an Emmy nomination for her role, according to Variety.
Will any of the original cast of ‘The Office’ be in the revival?
While there’s no word yet if any of the original cast are attached the revival — and, based on the plot description of the revival, they probably won’t be — some have spoken out about doing a potential revival or reunion over the years.
Steve Carrell
Steve Carrell told Entertainment Weekly in 2017 that he’s not interested in doing a revival.
“I don’t want to be a jerk about it, but I think people who like the show originally would want it to come back exactly the way it was, but that could never happen,” Carrell said. “I kind of don’t want to do it because I love the show so much. I think people would be disappointed, I really do.”
John Krasinski
John Krasinski, likely the most successful of the original cast members of “The Office,” told Esquire in 2020 that he’d “absolutely love” to do a reunion.
“‘The Office’ was absolutely everything to me,” Krasinski told Esquire. “I mean it is my beginning and my end. I’m pretty sure at the end of my career I’ll still be known for Jim. ... So yeah, if they did a reunion, I would absolutely love to do it.”
Rainn Wilson
Rainn Wilson told Collider in 2020 that he’d “love to revisit ‘The Office.’”
“I’ve told Greg Daniels that I would love to do something,” Wilson said. “Hopefully, one day. The fans would really love it. That’s the thing that counts the most. The fans would really love to see those characters again and have an experience with them.”
Jenna Fischer
According to People, Jenna Fischer would be interested in doing a revival or a reunion — only if Daniels was involved.
“OK, as long as Greg is writing it and he’s in charge of it, then I say yes,” Fischer said in a recent episode of the podcast “Office Ladies.”
But, according to Collider, Fischer said that she wasn’t invited to appear in “The Office” revival.
Angela Kinsey
In 2017, Angela Kinsey told Us Weekly that she’d “love” to do a reunion.
Per People, in an episode of the podcast “Office Ladies” earlier this year, Kinsey said, “I would do it. I would do it for my kids, ‘cause I think they would think that’s fun.”
BJ Novak
In 2022, BJ Novak told Deadline that he was hesitant to revive his character, Ryan.
“I think it needs to be approached as an artistic decision, not as a financial decision. I worry that there’s so much financial pressure, understandably, to mine this precious metal in the ground called ‘The Office’ reboot, spinoff or whatever,” he told Deadline.
Leslie David Baker
Leslie David Baker has expressed interest in reprising his role as Stanley — and almost got a spinoff series, entitled “Uncle Stan.”
According to Us Weekly, fans raised more than $300,000 on Kickstarter for the show.
But Baker returned $110,000 of those funds in 2023, telling fans via Instagram: “The project took longer than anticipated due to circumstances beyond our control. Initial delays were caused because of the Covid lockdowns and pushed us back further than expected.”
Mindy Kaling
Mindy Kaling told StyleCaster in 2021 that she’d be “excited and supportive” of a revival, but only if Daniels were involved.
Kaling said, “It had to be the right person steering the ship, but if it was Greg ... it would be a great show.”