It’s finally happening: the writers (WGA) and the producers (AMPTP) are tentatively in agreement about ending the months-long strike. All that’s needed is a vote from the guild board and members after the WGA announced on Sunday that they’ve reached a tentative deal with studios and streaming companies. Once that happens, writers can return to doing what they do best and hopefully get the compensation they deserve.
New shows and movies will reenter production once the WGA inks the deal. On top of that, we may be in store for a few big surprises — including a reboot of The Office, which I didn’t necessarily see coming. I’m tentatively excited about the prospect of discovering a new The Office show to enjoy, though things are apparently still in the very early stages.
I’ve probably gone through at least three rewatches of the US version of The Office, and I’ll never turn down an episode. I’ll watch hilarious gags and bloopers from The Office on social media, too, every time they make it into my feed as I’m doom-scrolling.
Of course it’s true that the action from the final two seasons without Michael Scott weren’t as great. Not that The Office reboot has to bring back Steve Carell or any of the old gang to be a great series.
After all, The Office was a reboot itself. It was the US version of the amazing British show of the same name. And it had nothing to do with the characters of the UK version, though Ricky Gervais did have a fun cameo. He is, of course, a co-creator of the US show.
As for the new version, there’s little information about it at this point. Puck News casually names The Office reboot in a paragraph teasing the future of Hollywood after the WGA strike:
We’re also about to see a firehose of announcements of projects and castings that have been held back for fear of bad optics or violating guild rules. Greg Daniels is set to do a reboot of The Office, for instance. Disney’s Dana Walden will finally be able to announce the return of her BFF Ryan Murphy from Netflix. A ton of high-profile movie scripts will come in. The industry will chug back to normal.
That’s what she said?
The closest thing we have as confirmation that a reboot is on people’s minds is a comment from showrunner Greg Daniels. The Independent reminds us he told Collider in 2022 that he envisions a different set of characters for an eventual reboot:
“I can’t tell whether fans would want more of it, and when I say more of it, I don’t think it would be the same characters,” he said. “I think it would just be sort of like an extension of the universe, you know what I mean, like the way [The] Mandalorian is like an extension of Star Wars. But I don’t know if that would be something people would want or not, it’s hard to tell.”
Considering The Office is still a massive show on streaming services a decade after the final season aired, it’s very likely the execs involved in making the show have been pondering a reboot. It’s probably only a matter of time until it gets made. And it’s one way to justify another round of price hikes across streaming subscriptions.
But with all the shows that might be lined up for production, it might be a few years before this reboot gets made. Let’s also remember that the actors’ strike continues, and it’s tough to start making shows again without any actors.
