The day has finally come. After seven years of playing Michael Scott on the NBC comedy The Office, Steve Carell has completed his final episode, officially leaving the character behind.

While Carell’s departure came as no surprise, his final day on the show was clearly an emotional one for his co-stars. Rainn Wilson (Dwight) expressed his feelings in 140 characters or less by tweeting, "Steve Carell's last day on The Office. And the angels of comedy wept…"

With his box office draw increasing, it was, of course, inevitable that Carell would outgrow both the commercial and creative potential The Office offered him, and would have to exit the show while the proverbial iron was hot. Although, don’t think this will be the last you see of Michael Scott. Like the series’ creator and executive producer Ricky Gervais, Carell has the option to return to his role in future episodes, in a guest-starring capacity.

While he managed to balance The Office with films such as Little Miss Sunshine, Get Smart and Date Night, Carell can now devote all his time to feature films, and has several post-Office projects already in the works, starting with the magician-centric film Burt Wonderstone. He will follow that up with the more ambitious-sounding adaptation of the novel Dogs of Babel (a.k.a Lorelei’s Secret). In Babel, which Carell is committed to produce and star in, he plays a linguist who, upon finding his wife dead, endeavors to give the gift of language to the only witness to her death: his dog Lorelei.

An integral part of one of the most successful UK-to-American TV adaptations in history, Carell’s role was not only a bright spot in recent years for NBC, it also certainly left an indelible mark on the world of television as a whole. While Carell won a Golden Globe for playing Michael Scott, and appeared in over 100 more episodes than Ricky Gervais did on the UK Office, time will tell if Michael Scott was as legendary as David Brent.

Though it will be operating without Carell, The Office still has a month of new episodes before the season ends. As previously announced, funnyman Will Ferrell will appear in four episodes to help wrap things up with Michael Scott, but there has been no word on whether a new manager will be named before the season ends.

Amidst the rampant speculation of who will replace Carell, Gervais has tossed about the notion of bringing Will Arnett onboard, but stopped short of saying what role Arnett would play.

Who would you like to see as the new manager on The Office?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter