The Office Star Reveals One New Episode Idea that Sounds Perfect

Sep 04, 2023

Rainn Wilson mentioned an episode of The Office involving the employees having to go back to the building following the pandemic.

By Jonathan Klotz| Updated 1 month ago

The Office has been one of the most popular shows on streaming since it first reached the internet, and amazingly, it might be more popular now, almost a decade after going off the air. Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute, the assistant (to the) regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, for the show's entire run, pitched a fantastic concept for a special episode showing what happens when the employees are forced back into the office following the Covid-19 pandemic. For a series that did such a great job of capturing the banality of everyday work, Wilson thinks that the pandemic would have been a goldmine for stories.

All of this came to light during Rainn Wilson's appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, going into detail over how Dwight would handle the call to get everyone back: "I think it would be: He gets the call from corporate to get everyone back in the office and everyone is resistant, so, one at a time, Dwight has to kidnap every Office cast member and bring them into Dunder Mifflin in some kind of obscure and somewhat inappropriate way.

Given the insanity of Jim (John Krasinski) and Dwight's prank wars, the sky's the limit for how the kidnappings could take place. Rainn Wilson's deadpan comedic timing, paired with wild, over-the-top reactions when appropriate (or not appropriate), was priceless when dealing with a stapler encased in Jell-O or Asian Jim (Randall Park). No matter how he’d round up his renegade co-workers, the internet would have a field day with all of the resulting scenes.

After all, The Office was originally going to be canceled multiple times before finding an audience, but the rise of social media coincided with the general public falling in love with the little sitcom that could. Explaining the show's rise in popularity to Drew Barrymore, Rainn Wilson says, "then all of a sudden, the advent of streaming, and now it's on Peacock … it's insane." Trying to go a day on any social media platform, from Instagram to TikTok, and avoiding anything related to the sitcom is impossible. Couple that social media appeal with the rise of remote work, and it's a recipe for success.

The rest of The Office cast that would be involved include Steve Carell (hopefully), Jenna Fischer, B.J. Novak, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms, Elle Kemper, Phyllis Smith, Paul Lieberstein, Melora Hardin, Oscar Nunez, and Angela Kinsey. Rainn Wilson is correct that the concept would be a winner, especially with the comedic all-star cast finding humor in the return to work debate raging across offices nationwide. After all, this is the same show that tackled diversity training, forced socialization, and the threat of everyone losing their jobs in its first season, so if the pandemic can be turned into comedy, this is the crew that can do it.

Sadly, all of this is just a pitch from Rainn Wilson, with no evidence that the band is getting back together. Every other show is getting reboots and reunion series, so why not The Office?