The Paper’s creator has declared it is not a spin-off of The Office
Even though it exists in its universe, The Paper’s creator has declared it is not a spin-off of The Office.
The Paper’s creator has declared it is not a spin-off of The Office even though it exists in its universe.
Greg Daniels developed his new mockumentary series, starring Dohmnall Gleeson set in a struggling small-town Toledo newspaper and started pitching the idea some years ago and enlisted Michael Koman to executive-produce, but initially withheld a key detail – the show would connect to the world of The Office.
Greg has told Variety about holding back on the detail: “I didn’t want to scare Michael off… the notion of doing some follow-up to ‘The Office’ is, I think, very fraught with danger. The fans are so protective, and I’m super conscious of that.”
The Office ran for nine seasons on NBC from 2005 to 2013, adapted from the UK original by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, before evolving into its own identity and achieving enormous streaming success.
Over time, the repeats became a juggernaut on platforms like Netflix and later Peacock, drawing in multiple generations of binge viewers.
But Greg added he drew a firm line with his new show, adding: “The Paper is not an Office reboot. I knew that this shouldn’t be recasting the show The Office, or keeping the same characters but with a new cast that would be compared to the original and come up short.
“If it was going to happen at all, it would be the same documentary crew finding a different story to talk about.”
Behind the idea for The Paper was Greg’s long-standing interest in the state of regional journalism.
He told his collaborators he had been struck by the notion of “ghost newspapers” – once-vibrant regional papers stripped of reporters after acquisition, kept alive only by skeleton staff handling advertising or support roles.
He conceived a link: what if the fictional paper division Enervate, parent of the Dunder Mifflin company in The Office, had also acquired a failing newspaper in Toledo?
Then, when the Scranton branch closed, the documentary crew might migrate to Toledo to chronicle new employees.
Oscar Nuñez, who played accountant Oscar Martinez in The Office, was involved from the start.
Greg said of the character: “Oscar Martinez had been always one of the most private people, who always seemed the most reluctant about sharing, and had the most dignity.
“He didn’t really end up all that different from where he started, and it felt like there was still more that he could react to.”
