‘The Office’ Star Suggests the ‘Ship Has Sailed’ on Potential Revival Plans With Original Cast

The Office star B.J. Novak has suggested that the “ship has sailed” on any potential revival plans with the show’s original cast. Speaking on The Deadline Podcast, Novak was asked about the chances of a reunion series with all the stars, to which he replied, “I don’t know contractually, but I know spiritually, it’s a pure Greg Daniels thing (decision). Everyone knows he is the person who controls the rights to The Office, spiritually, creatively the American Office.”

Novak went on to say, “Definitely you wouldn’t get everyone back together, that ship has sailed.” Regarding some other version of the series ever happening, such as reimagining or reboot, he explained, “I think it’s more if there’s anything to mine creatively that’s fresh.” Novak played temp Ryan Howard on all nine seasons of The Office, a character who rose through the ranks before eventually winding right back where he started. In addition to starring in the series, Novak was also a writer and producer.

Elaborating more on his thoughts about an Office reboot, Novak said, “I think it needs to be approached as an artistic decision, not as a financial decision. I worry that there’s so much financial pressure, understandably, to mine this precious metal in the ground called The Office.” He continued, “The Office originally was done for the opposite of money. It looked to all of us in that writers room as the most unlucrative stupid decision, to make a dreary, fake documentary set in an office with no shiny stars, no music, no colors practically, definitely no studio audience, that was suppose to be the mundanity of a paper company; a remake of a British show that everyone hated us for attempting.”

Recently, PopCulture had a chance to speak with Office star Rainn Wilson about the chances of a revival, and he shared a similar sentiment as Novak, but he still offered a pretty wild idea for how it could return. “Maybe an Office movie could be fun. An Office road trip movie,” he said. “Everyone’s driving across the country to go to Creed’s funeral. At the last moment, it turns out he’s not dead, pops out of his coffin. Then we combine it with a Walking Dead spinoff series, Dwight versus zombies. Everyone has wanted to see Dwight versus zombies from the get-go. So there’s a world of possibility out there.”