A First Look At The Office’s Sequel Series, ‘The Paper,’ Which Actually Exists

I am not sure how many people actually know this project exists, but there is going to be a follow-up series to the famed The Office, the almost decade-spanning NBC comedy that ended in 2013. That show is called The Paper, and now we have our first look at the series ahead of when it airs on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, as that’s the era we occupy now.

This is “the universe of The Office,” which could not be more of a parody of the connected cinematic universe trend in film and TV today if it tried. I’m not 100% sure it’s even being ironic.

The crossover concept is that this is the same camera/documentary crew that followed Dunder-Mifflin around for ten seasons, and at least so far, has one character crossover that we know about, The Office’s Oscar Nuñez, with his character Oscar Martinez now apparently an accountant at this new, struggling paper, which is the concept of the show. The paper is called The Truth-Teller, and takes place not in Scranton but Toledo, Ohio. It is in fact from former Office showrunner Greg Daniels. Here’s him describing the series:

“It’s about this struggling Midwestern newspaper that’s much reduced from its glory days. A lot of the story lines are about how this guy, Domhnall Gleeson’s character, is trying to restore this paper, and he just doesn’t have the budget for hiring reporters, and he has to use all the staff that work there on a volunteer basis to be reporters. They’re completely untrained and don’t know what they’re doing,” Daniels said. “It’s a fruitful premise. There’s a tremendous history for local papers. The villain here is the internet and the ability to look at everybody’s news for free, and all the ad revenue going to Google.”

The boss this time around is played by Domhnall Gleeson, generally not thought of as a comedy actor across roles in Black Mirror, Harry Potter and most recently, the new Star Wars trilogy. I’m curious if he will keep his Irish accent or go full American for this, as he’s done in some past projects. Probably the latter.

The series also stars Sabrina Impacciatore, whose name you might not know, but I’m certain you’ll remember her as the concierge in season 2 of The White Lotus, where she made a significant impression. Again, curious about her accent given the show’s location in Ohio. As someone who lives in Ohio, I can safely say there not many Irish or Italian accents around. There is a long list of other actors confirmed to be joining the series but I don’t recognize any of them. Though The Office of course created classic characters featuring previously unknown actors. I am more than willing to bet other Office mates besides Oscar will show us cameos here.

The idea of a paper trying to compete with free news and Google eating up all ad revenue certainly hits close to home in my business, so even if this sounds like something of a cash-in, I will be checking it out when it releases this September.

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