The Office follow-up series has found a home.
Peacock on Wednesday announced a formal series order for the untitled series that is set in the same universe as NBC’s former Emmy-winning Steve Carell comedy.
The series, co-created by The Office’s Greg Daniels and Nathan for You co-creator Michael Koman, will again be a mockumentary and features Domhnall Gleeson (About Time, Ex-Machina) and Sabrina Impacciatore (The White Lotus) leading the ensemble cast. Production on the show will begin in July.
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“It’s been more than 10 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,” said Lisa Katz, president of NBCUniversal Entertainment. “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.”
Here’s the formal logline: “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.” The untitled mockumentary, which arrives as ABC has found Emmy gold with Abbott Elementary, hails from the studio behind the former NBC favorite, Universal Television.
The comedy is executive produced by Daniels and Koman, alongside the creatives behind the U.K. original version of The Office, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, as well as Howard Klein, Ben Silverman and Banijay Americas (formerly Reveille).
The formal series pickup for the Office follow-up comes as Peacock is the exclusive streaming home for the Carell comedy, which found millions of new viewers when Netflix streamed the series. The update gives Peacock a must-see original at a time when it has struggled to find audiences for its scripted comedy originals. (See Girls5eva’s move from Peacock to Netflix.) The NBCUniversal-backed streamer previously picked up another mockumentary, Mr. Throwback, starring Steph Curry and Adam Pally, and has comedies Ted and Killing It awaiting word on their futures. (Comedy Bupkis will not return for a second season after star and creator Pete Davidson decided to walk away from the show.)
Details on roles that Impacciatore and Gleeson are playing are being kept under wraps given the huge expectations that come along with anything connected to The Office, though sources say Daniels and Koman have been casting a wide net to find talent availabilities for the latter half of this year.
As The Hollywood Reporter previously reported, The Office creator Daniels opened up a development room in early January to explore a new series that will be set in the same universe as the former NBC hit (itself a take on the British Gervais comedy). Daniels tapped Koman to co-create the project, which the prolific writer-producer does not consider to be a reboot of his 2005 mockumentary.
The new take on The Office comes at a busy time for Daniels, who recently scored a final season renewal for his Amazon comedy Upload. The prolific creator and producer is also reteaming with Mike Judge for a new season of his beloved animated comedy King of the Hill for Hulu. Together, the duo also have a wildly successful animation company with multiple series across a slew of streamers. Rumors surrounding a revival of The Office have swirled for years. In late 2017, NBC floated the idea of bringing The Office back with a fully fledged revival featuring Daniels at the helm and a new star taking over for Carell. Nothing came of that effort.
