The Office star Rainn Wilson thinks NBC "missed out" by not making the Dwight Schrute spin-off, but says he was kind of relieved it never happened.
"Had they taken The Farm, they'd probably have another billion dollars in the bank. No one talks about that," Wilson told The Daily Beast's The Last Laugh podcast. "Would it have been as good as The Office? No, no way, not even close. Would it have been good? Would it have been solid? Would it have been a good, solid comedy? Yeah, it would've, and we would've done some really cool stuff. And I think they really missed out."
The sitcom's final season included a so-called "backdoor pilot" for a potential spin-off involving Wilson's eccentric assistant to the regional manager, titled 'The Farm.' The season 9 episode involves a Schrute family reunion at Schrute Farms for Dwight's aunt Shirley's funeral, but Wilson said NBC wasn't interested in The Office spin-offs at that time and "never really got" the show. The episode was received pretty poorly by critics.
Wilson added that he wasn't too disappointed at the time, though. "It was, like, 10-20% disappointment and 80% giant relief," he said. "It was a big relief of, like, I'm not gonna do any more seasons of Dwight."
The Farm may never have taken off, but a new spin-off has just hit our screens over a decade after The Office ended. The Paper, starring Domhnall Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore, sees the same documentary crew that captured life at Dunder Mifflin taking on a new subject: The Toledo Truth-Teller, a failing local newspaper.
The Paper is currently streaming on Peacock in the US and NOW in the UK. For more, fill out your watchlist with our picks of the best new TV shows still to come in 2025.
