The series finale of The Office originally included a parody of The Matrix, which involved Jim's last prank on Dwight, which ended up being cut. The iconic show, which remains a favorite on Netflix despite ending over seven years ago, was based on the British show of the same name created by Ricky Gervais. The Office made stars of a number of its cast, including Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, Ed Helms, Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms, BJ Novak, and Ellie Kemper.
The show first aired in 2005 and ran for nine seasons, with Carell leading the cast in seven. Upon his departure, Wilson's Dwight stepped into the lead, alongside Krasinski's Jim and Fischer's Pam. One of the recurring gags across all nine seasons were the pranks Jim played on Dwight, including dressing up as him, convincing him Jim has always been Asian by hiring a friend to pretend to be him, and putting all of his office supplies in the vending machine. The show's final episode, set one year after the events of the documentary, brought together the original cast for the wedding of Dwight and Angela, and featured a surprise cameo from Carell, but no pranks.
However, the final episode of the podcast, An Oral History of The Office, hosted by Brian Baumgartner, who played The Office's resident idiot Kevin Malone, reveals that there initially was a prank included in the finale. David Rogers, who edited the finale among many other episodes of the show, says the prank involved Jim and Pam, attempting to convince Dwight that he lived in The Matrix. Several references to the film were used, including a cat that walks past twice in a row, which Pam reveals took six months to achieve and casting Hank, the security guard in the building, as Morpheus' brother, Dorpheus. But ultimately, the prank was cut for time:
We can talk about the prank that hasn’t made it to the big screen, that I think we’re saving for the 10-year reunion, The Matrix. That’s the finale script, they prank Dwight to make him think he’s in the Matrix, and remember Hank is down as Dorpheus, he’s Morpheus’s brother. There’s a cat that walks by and a cat walks by again in Michael’s office, and Jenna goes, "It took six months to train the cat." And then we have the security guard walk by, it was the big guy, and he had a twin brother and we used him also, as a glitch. And then he’s gonna take the red pill or the blue pill.
From the description, it sounds like a classic prank, and it's a pity that it had to be cut for time, as it would have been a nice touch to include one final gag in the show. It also sounds perfectly suited to Dwight, who is susceptible to flights of fancy and liable to believe conspiracy theories, making him especially vulnerable to believing that he's somehow 'The One' who needs to break out of The Matrix.
Sadly, it wasn't meant to be, but the show already contains so many pranks that it's not a huge loss. However, there is a chance that it could still make it on air, as when The Office moves over to NBC's streaming service Peacock from Netflix in 2021, it is set to include extended episodes. Perhaps The Matrix parody scene from the finale will be one of the included extras?
Source: An Oral History of The Office/Spotify