The Real Reason The Office May Never Get A Remake

There's never a moment when people aren't missing The Office. It's the reliable comfort rewatch for thousands of people, and there's a perennial wish to have it come back even for a brief special despite the fact it hasn't been off the air even a decade yet. Not everyone would be contented by a mere reunion episode, though — the demand for a remake is always drifting on the air, a whisper in the heart of every Jim and Pam 'shipper. The Office itches a particular and universal scratch that nothing else — not 30 Rock, or Parks and Recreation, or any other workplace sitcom — can quite reach.

Once the time for any given thing — even ubiquitous and beloved sitcoms — passes, however, that tends to be forever. That appears to be just the fate of The Office and any kind of reunion episode, revival, or remake — no matter how desperate NBCUniversal may be to create some kind of new Office content for its soon-to-be streaming service, Peacock. There's a simple and obvious reason for this letdown, but there's a less-noticeable one, too. Here's a peek into why you're unlikely to see the folks of Dunder Mifflin ever light the LED pixels of your television anew ever again.

The obvious answer you're probably anticipating is how difficult it would be to reunify the most important Office cast members for even a one-time reunion, much less a full reboot. Jim Halpert actor John Krasinski is pretty busy these days being a full-fledged movie star and still on television in leading roles. Dwight Schrute star Rainn Wilson is as well, both acting and producing on multiple projects. Steve Carell, who headed up The Office as the bumbling regional manager Michael Scott (until his departure after season 7) has straight-up said he's not interested in returning to the series. (Plenty of other cast members have offered their thoughts on an Office revival as well, and not all are optimistic.) That alone is a blow from which no reboot can ever recover.

The less obvious reason why The Office probably won't ever get a remake or reboot has a back-end source: one of the original co-creators that adapted The Office from its British cousin has no interest in coming back to the material at all, either. 

Creed Bratton spoke with IGN about a conversation he'd had with writer-producer Greg Daniels about an Office revival: "I would love to do it. I don't see it happening. I just went up a while back and shot this thing called Upload for Greg Daniels up in Vancouver, this sci-fi thing he's doing, and we were talking about it over dinner, and he said they keep approaching him. He's not into it, and if Greg's not into it, I don't think anyone else would want to be into it." 

We presume that "they" in this situation is NBCUniversal, given the company's previously-cited interest in reviving the show for streaming. The Office had many, many co-writers over the years, but Daniels is by far the most important erstwhile creative engine — he's credited as writer for every episode of the series. The Office's humor mostly relies on a very specific tone, and that comes from writing before it comes from any individual performance in front of a camera. He's moved on; perhaps we should follow suit, and enjoy the new things he's crafting to make us laugh.