‘The Office’ Alum Returns Money to Fans Over Failed Project

While fans may be clamoring for more of The Office 10 years after the sitcom came to an end, don’t count on a series with Stanley Hudson. Leslie David Baker, who portrayed the laconic salesman on the NBC series, has officially announced the end of his Kickstarter campaign to get his Stanley spinoff, Uncle Stan, off the ground. The actor initially launched the campaign in July 2020 to try to get a pilot made for a potential spinoff, which would have focused on Stanley “several years after he has retired.”

The campaign has reached $336,450, and the goal was only $300,000, though despite the goal being passed, Uncle Stan will not see the light of day, at least not yet. Baker took to Instagram to update his followers on the status of the spinoff, apologizing for the delays as they had “been working behind the scenes to get everything on track and rewards fulfilled.”

“The project took longer than anticipated due to circumstances beyond our control,” Baker continued. “Initial delays were caused because of the Covid lockdowns and pushed us back further than expected. As things started returning to normal and we commenced reward fulfillment and preproduction, the WGAS strike was announced, causing us to put things on hold again. As you are all aware, SAG is now on strike, and we will continue to be on hold indefinitely until an agreement is reached. We stand in solidarity with those in the entertainment industry and will do our part in supporting WGA and SAG during these times.” 

Baker went on to say that they are refunding their backers but promised that the rewards will still be fulfilled. He also pointed out that the amount shown on the Kickstarter page for the funds was not the final amount as backers’ pledges had to be lowered “or completed dropped and never collected once the campaign was completed.” The final amount was just over $110,000 and Baker stated that “the funds were never used for any purposes other than reward fulfillment and backer refunds and have otherwise remained accounted for and untouched in the account.”

It’s unknown if Baker will be trying again and if the Kickstarter campaign would resume after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, as it’s clear that the interest is definitely there among fans. But with the delays, it’s hard to tell what is going to happen with Uncle Stan‘s future. It is nice of him to refund the money and still fulfill the backers’ rewards in the meantime, though. Hopefully, Stanley Hudson will come back in some way, but for now, fans will just have to watch The Office on Peacock.