We’ve been writing about the long-rumored spinoff of NBC’s The Office for months now, and the details that everyone has been waiting on have finally arrived. Well, most of the details; we still don’t know what the new show will be called, nor the degree to which the forthcoming spinoff will intersect with any of the Dunder Mifflin characters we all loved from the OG series. Today’s big news, though, is that the still-untitled spinoff has officially been picked up to series by Peacock — and we’ve got all the highlights below.
In addition to Peacock confirming on Thursday that the new Office-adjacent show from Greg Daniels and Michael Koman has been picked up to series, we also know that production will begin in July. And that Domhnall Gleeson (About Time, Ex-Machina) and Sabrina Impacciatore (The White Lotus) will lead an ensemble cast.
As for what the show is about, here’s where things depart from the original Office:
NBC’s beloved 9-season show was, of course, a mockumentary, and this time around that same fictional documentary crew is in search of a new story to tell. Leaving the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin behind, the crew discovers a dying newspaper and its publisher in the Midwest. The paper has brought in volunteer reporters to turn things around, and I suspect the documentary crew will zero in on the individual characters to tell the story of a legacy journalism business that, honestly, sounds a lot like a certain regional paper and office products supplier in Scranton.
Having worked in journalism for a few small-town newspapers many years ago, I can confirm: The characters, the weirdness, the heart, and the camaraderie will definitely lend itself to the kind of show the fans of The Office want to see. I’d even go so far as to say this new story will be the perfect spiritual successor to The Office and sync up perfectly with Pam’s line at the end of the series finale: “There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things.”