Rainn Wilson, best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on NBC’s hit sitcom The Office, admitted that the series could at times be “jaw-droppingly” offensive. Speaking on The Last Laugh podcast, Wilson said that if the show were to return in 2025, it would have to be “very, very different.”
Listen you know, the Benihana Christmas episode where Michael and Andy draw with a sharpie on one of the Asian women that they’ve brought back to the Christmas party is jaw droppingly kind of horrific. And it’s a tricky conversation, you know? They’re clueless and in their cluelessness they’re racist and insensitive, and they’re always saying the wrong thing. And that’s Michael, Dwight and Andy — and Kevin for that matter. So it’s a show based around clueless, insensitive, racist, sexist people that kind of mirrors the United States in a lot of ways.
Wilson said
You want to encourage it, because it’s funny as hell and it also kind of skewers a particular American sensibility. But it definitely goes pretty far if you dig deep. Could it happen today? I think it would have to be very, very different if it were made in this environment.
Wilson continued
The Office ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2013, producing 201 episodes. Its cultural impact has only grown since, particularly through streaming platforms. Peacock recently expanded the franchise with the spinoff series The Paper, which premiered its 10-episode first season on Sept. 4.
Watch The Paper 2025 on Peacock Outside USA
But this is not the first attempt to build beyond the original show. Wilson was set to lead a Dwight Schrute spinoff titled The Farm, which even had a backdoor pilot during the final season of The Office. NBC, however, chose not to move forward.
NBC at that time had a new regime that came in and they wanted to do big, bright, flashy, splashy shows that were multi-cams and going back to ‘Friends’ kind of thing. And they were just not interested at all in ‘Office’ spinoffs at the time. Had they taken ‘The Farm,’ they’d probably have another billion dollars in the bank. Even now, all the people that have seen ‘The Office’ 20 times, they’re going to watch ‘The Farm’ at least once or twice. 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 have, and we would’ve done some really cool stuff. And I think they really missed out.
Wilson explained.
But the the history of ‘The Office’ in NBC is, they never really got the show. Honestly, it was like five years after the show was over, when all of a sudden it started being watched in the billions of minutes on Netflix, that NBC was like, wait a minute, this is kind of a cash cow. This is actually a really good show and it’s got some legs.
Wilson also criticized NBC’s handling of the show during its run.
Source: Variety