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Last month, there was a round of headlines thanks to a very brief mention in a Puck News post about The Office showrunner Greg Daniels being “set to do a reboot.” Reporting and speculation went rampant, but nothing was ever officially commented on until now. Like a true industry veteran who knows how to play the game, Daniels fully let the cycle of free publicity play out before commenting on the report. Turns out, it’s not something Daniels is opposed to happening, but rumors of an Office reboot are greatly exaggerated.
“Well, I think that it’s very speculative,” Daniels, 60, said of a potential revival during a Tuesday, October 17, interview with Collider. “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.”
While Daniels couldn’t confirm that a new iteration of the beloved sitcom is happening, he also didn’t fully shut down the idea, hinting that something may happen in the future. “When there’s something to announce, I will definitely announce it,” he promised fans.
When it comes to how a show like The Office could work today, Daniels told Collider that it would be an “interesting” storytelling challenge, especially with all the advancements in technology over the past decade.
“When you watch old movies it’s like a game to identify what wouldn’t work when everybody had a cell phone,” he explained. “Like, all the story moves of people like, ‘Oh, they just missed you. Oh, dang.’ Now maybe I’ll get on that boat and go to, you know, it’s just like, ‘Oh, how frustrating if you only had a cell phone.’ I mean, it’s an interesting question for sure.”
Reboots and revivals have only gained momentum in the past few years, but Daniels hasn’t always been as open to the idea of revisiting the show, telling Entertainment Weekly in 2019 that he would “hesitate” to “open” such a “perfect” thing back up.
“We got the chance to end it the way we wanted to end it. It wasn’t like we were interrupted in the middle of a run or something,” he shared. “So in a sense, it’s completely an artistic whole. But, that said, I don’t know, the cast every now and then talks about getting back together in some form, but I don’t see it being a reboot like the way Will & Grace was rebooted.”
And there you have it. It kinda feels like that Puck news item was a little press leak to test the waters to see if there was even any substantial public interest in the idea. When we first talked about the reboot, I think most of us were in agreement that there’s no need to reboot The Office. From what I saw around the Internet, the news blew up because it was something fans had an opinion about…and most opinions were unified in the, “Thanks, but no thanks” camp.
It is interesting what he said about it being a “storytelling challenge” to navigate present day things like technology in a potential reboot. I mean, we had cell phones, the Internet and social media when the American version started in 2005, lol. Is “technology” some sort of code for “various problematic behaviors that were used for comedy?” Just like any show we’re watching 20 years later, there are definitely things that don’t hold up, but I feel like they could just not write those things into a new script. Is it really a hold-up that they can’t make certain jokes anymore? Don’t worry, Greg. We’re all still going to laugh at a good “That’s what she said.” Anyway, I’m still on Team Nah when it comes to the reboot and once again recommend Superstore to anyone who is looking for a good replacement to binge.
ugh. leave it. it was good and there’s no way to top it.
studio execs love reboot bc there’s a guaranteed fanbase for the release and maybe for the first season. but i feel like there’s so many other stories that don’t get greenlit that could be just as good.
Part of what makes 19thc century novels so engaging is that you don’t know if the couple you’re shipping will ever be able to see each other again. If a woman is in love, she can’t write a letter to him or go to his house, much less text. If there’s a war, you have to see if the hero’s horse holds out long enough to tell his superior officer the latest command from the admiralty. There’s more suspense and more effort that has to be made for communication.
Gossip Girl is a good example: the show was premised on universal cell usage but had major plot gaps because the writers manufactured dumb reasons why they had to go physically see each other or “just missed” each other. They hadn’t found out how to get the suspense without it being based on distance.
Ugh. Enough with the reboots. Leave The Office where it is. Even if Steve Carrell is part of it. After he left the show it was never the same. Michael Scott was the nucleus.
Ugh, please don’t. I’ve never understood the appeal of that show. It was so mediocre. How they stretched Dwight (most annoying tv character of all time) acting stupid, while certain other characters would glance at the camera, a bemused look on their face, into like 20 seasons, is beyond me. Because that was about 80% of the show. Daryll/Craig Robinson was the only good thing about that show, and he did not have nearly a big enough part.
Not to mention the sheer number of characters who seemed to exist SOLEY to be made fun of (looking at you Kevin, and Phyllis, among others)……frankly I don’t know how the Office could even be made in our slightly more enlightened age.
Now the UK Office (which should be referred to simply as ‘The Office’, while the Other show should be ‘The US Office’, because the UK version came first) being rebooted is something I could get behind. It was superior to the US Office in every way.