NBC’s “The Office” is set to make a comeback that will be officially announced following the conclusion of the writers’ strike, multiple outlets reported Monday.
‘The Office’ is reportedly getting rebooted pic.twitter.com/CRmV9fyFiQ
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Following news that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA writers’ strikes are coming to an end, Puck News reported that original showrunner Greg Daniels will be bringing the hit show back to TV.
The original ran from 2005 until its 2013 finale, which was viewed by over 5.5 million people, and has spawned adaptations in Germany, Israel, France, India, Saudi Arabia and numerous other countries. Its popularity has only grown since its original run thanks to streaming. Driven by pandemic binge watches, users streamed over 57 billion minutes of the workplace mockumentary in 2020, according to Nielsen data.
The streaming success allowed NBC to use it as a tentpole piece of content to launch their Peacock streaming service in 2021. They bought back the streaming rights from Netflix in a $500 million deal and the acquisition drove more signups than Peacock’s initial launch did, according to the Verge.
Within a month of “The Office” debuting on Peacock, it was already outpacing its Netflix numbers, NBC Universal’s CEO told shareholders in 2021. “Our usage among our customers are actually higher than we think the usage was among Netflix customers,” Jeff Shell said, according to Media Play News.
Though it is unclear as of yet which (if any) stars may be returning, Daniels teased what a potential reboot or spinoff could look like in a 2022 interview with Collider. (RELATED: Ricky Gervais Says ‘Outrage Mobs’ Would Have Prevented ‘The Office’ If Produced Today)
“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,” Daniels 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.”