While The Office itself is already a remake, the massive success of the sitcom garnered widespread interest in spinoffs, though each attempt so far has failed. Greg Daniels’ The Office premiered in 2005 with many fearing its failure, as it was an American remake of Ricky Gervais’ popular The Office (U.K.) that concluded at the end of 2003. While several of The Office’s characters repeated the storylines and personalities of their British counterparts in season 1, the American series quickly proved that it could hold its own, which led to the hit show seeing nine seasons before coming to an end in 2013.
The Office may have demonstrated itself as a well-made spin on an old show, but the series’ later spinoff ideas weren’t so lucky. After Michael Scott (Steve Carell) left The Office in season 7, many worried that the show wouldn’t be able to maintain its same level of humor and intrigue without him. The Office saw two more seasons after Steve Carell’s exit but, as expected, the ratings and reviews took a hit during the last two installments. Although The Office seasons 8 and 9 aren’t as highly regarded as the Michael Scott era of the series, the show was still enormously popular, leaving many fans with questions about certain characters’ storylines being continued after the finale.
NBC has tried to recreate the magic of The Office several times, with one well-known spin being Parks & Recreation, which was co-created by The Office producers Michael Schur and Greg Daniels. Parks & Rec became a success on its own, even without actually being connected to The Office, but it wasn’t actually a spinoff. Both before and after The Office’s season 9 finale, the show’s producers and, later, actors pitched ideas to continue its legacy. Netflix's Space Force co-creator Greg Daniels has now refueled the idea for a spinoff of The Office in an interview with Collider, but the series would need to take lessons in where the show’s past attempts went wrong. Here’s a breakdown of every The Office spinoff that failed to launch.
The Farm
The most well-known failed The Office spinoff is The Farm, which had a backdoor pilot in The Office's season 9 episode “The Farm.” As shown in the backdoor pilot, The Farm would have followed Dwight Schrute’s eccentric family at his beet farm, with audiences being introduced to many of the zany Schrute family members that would have starred. The spinoff would have continued The Office’s mockumentary format, but would have taken Dwight out of the main show earlier than intended. NBC rejected Dwight's The Farm spinoff after review, with the majority of critics also responding negatively to The Office’s backdoor pilot.
Had The Farm been picked up by NBC, Rainn Wilson would have left The Office after 13 episodes of season 9 to begin his spinoff show. After its rejection and before the episode’s airing, Greg Daniels had more scenes of The Office’s remaining characters shot and removed several scenes from The Farm that would have only been necessary for a true pilot episode. The Farm failing to launch is actually a blessing in disguise for Dwight Schrute’s character, as viewers likely never would have seen his reconciliation and marriage with Angela, rise to becoming Dunder Mifflin’s Regional Manager, and heartbreaking goodbyes with Jim, Pam, and Michael in The Office's finale.
Dakota Johnson's Dunder Mifflin Next Generation
The least-known spinoff to The Office that could have changed the series’ legacy was proposed ahead of the show’s season 9 finale. While many forget that Fifty Shades of Grey actress Dakota Johnson cameoed in The Office’s finale, her role was intended to bear much more significance later on. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dakota Johnson’s character, Dakota (repeating The Office’s trend of using actors’ real names), would have led a spinoff for Dunder Mifflin. Johnson was apparently supposed to headline the untitled spinoff, which would have likely followed the next generation of Dunder Mifflin employees after the majority of the original cast exited in The Office’s season 9 finale.
The Office’s season 9 finale saw several younger characters replace the original employees, including Dakota taking over as Dunder Mifflin’s accountant after Kevin Malone was fired. Clark, who joined the cast in The Office’s season 9 premiere, was shown to have a crush on Dakota in the finale episode, which likely would have carried over into a Jim-and-Pam-type romance for the failed spinoff. Johnson revealed that had the show been picked up by NBC, audiences at home may have instead known her for appearing in “The Office spinoff that no one wants to watch.” The untitled spinoff would have continued Dunder Mifflin’s legacy for a new generation, but it seems best that it didn’t move forward. Johnson elaborated that she doesn’t think the spinoff would have worked for her “creatively,” explaining that “some things [The Office] need to end when they’re supposed to end.”
Uncle Stan
While many fans were disappointed to see Stanley Hudson’s time at Dunder Mifflin end in The Office’s season 9 finale, the character happily set off to Florida to enjoy his retirement. Stanley’s actor Leslie David Baker began a Kickstarter campaign in 2020 in an effort to fund a web pilot episode of his proposed The Office spinoff, Uncle Stan. The show would have begun with Stanley enjoying his time in Florida, only for his nephew, Lucky, to call and ask him to help raise his two kids and run a motorcycle/flower shop in Los Angeles. Baker had already scouted locations, written a theme song, provided more detailed circumstances of the show’s plot, and raised $300,000, but nothing has come of the unofficial spinoff. Since Baker likely has no legal rights to The Office's major character, this was probably one of the biggest hurdles in launching Uncle Stan off the ground.
Parks & Recs (Sort Of)
Parks & Recreation is known as its own hit sitcom series that repeats The Office’s workplace mockumentary premise, but it was originally intended as a spinoff to the Dunder Mifflin story. Rather than take a character who appeared in The Office or another Dunder Mifflin branch and follow their story, Michael Schur, Greg Daniels, and Paul Lieberstein were initially set on making Parks & Rec a spinoff based on a faulty copy machine. Their idea was to take a broken copy machine from an episode of The Office, have it fixed in a warehouse, and send Dunder Mifflin’s refurbished copier to Pawnee, Indiana where it would be used by the city’s Parks and Recreation department.
The major hurdle to The Office-Parks & Rec spinoff was Rashida Jones, who had played Karen Filippelli in The Office season 3. The Office writer Justin Spitzer recalled that when Jones was cast for Parks & Rec during development, he figured that NBC was telling them the series would not be a spinoff. Jones played prominent character Ann Perkins in Parks & Rec, which would have caused a significant continuity issue between the two shows. NBC and the producers eventually decided that Parks & Rec would be a standalone series, which benefitted the sitcom in the long run after its immediate comparisons to The Office waned.
How The New Office Spin-Off Could Avoid Failure
Since every attempt at making a spinoff for The Office has so far failed, Greg Daniels’ proposed in-universe series would need to introduce a brand-new premise. In his interview with Collider, Daniels explained that a new The Office spinoff wouldn’t necessarily follow any of the original characters, as he would rather extend the show’s universe. Daniels compared his idea for a spinoff to The Office as The Mandalorian being an extension of Star Wars’ universe, which would align more with the showrunner’s original Parks & Rec spinoff idea. However, this comparison would likely get fans excited for a de-aged Michael Scott arriving to recruit a young Jim Halpert to fulfill his destiny at Dunder Mifflin.
Following the original main characters would likely be a mistake, as viewers are already long-removed from their stories with their new colleagues inevitably paling in comparison to Dunder Mifflin. Rather, The Office’s spinoff could follow a new branch of Dunder Mifflin characters or another timeline of the series entirely. Just as The Office excelled once it broke off from the original UK show’s format, a new spinoff would need to stand on its own in order to avoid failure. Since Parks & Rec became a hit series that originally would have had an arbitrary in-universe connection to The Office, the spinoff could also finally fulfill this idea by following another workplace connected to Dunder Mifflin’s mishaps. While The Office spinoff could also follow Jim's company Athleap, Dunder Mifflin corporate, another branch, a new generation of employees at Dunder Mifflin Scranton, or even Pizza by Alfredo, repeating the formula of Parks & Rec with a minor connection to The Office may be its best chance at success.