Peacock’s upcoming The Office reboot has added three new cast members to its roster. The project, which is currently untitled, will be set in the same universe as the hit NBC sitcom and follow a new cast of characters. Whereas the original show covered the employees of a regional paper company, the Office reboot will be centered on the people trying to keep a dying newspaper alive; the connective tissue between the two is the documentary crew filming everything, who have now found their latest subjects after covering Dunder Mifflin’s story.
As noted by NBCUniversal, the new Office show has cast Melvin Gregg (American Vandal, Snowfall), Chelsea Frei (Poker Face, The Cleaning Lady), and Ramona Young (Never Have I Ever, Santa Clarita Diet). Their characters have not yet been disclosed. To help research their parts, though, all three actors visited the Palisadian-Post to shadow the real staff members of a local newspaper. The series is created by Greg Daniels and Michael Koman, with the former having developed the original NBC Office. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who created the original U.K. series that started it all, are also on board as executive producers.
What This Casting News Means For The Office Reboot
The New Show Might’ve Just Found Its Newspaper Staff
Though their characters haven’t been revealed just yet, the odds are very good that Gregg, Frei, and Young will be playing staffers for the central newspaper. The official logline for the Office offshoot mentions “volunteer reporters“ who are helping to keep the paper alive, and it could be that the three new stars are a few of those reporters. An interesting storyline for the series to explore would be young, aspiring journalists confronting the devastating reality that many papers are facing, and Young and Frei’s characters could fit that bill.
The two previously-announced leads for the reboot are Domhnall Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore, and their roles are currently under wraps as well.
Regardless of how they are attached to the paper, all three stars are bound to be key parts of the incoming ensemble. Every main cast member from The Office was employed by Dunder Mifflin and worked in the Scranton branch. There is a scenario where some of these actors are playing members of the documentary crew, but that would become a very different type of show. The two previously-announced leads for the reboot are Domhnall Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore, and their roles are currently under wraps as well.
Our Take On The Office Reboot’s Casting
The Show Is Building A Diverse Ensemble
Without knowing anyone’s role, it is difficult to properly predict what kind of dynamics will be at play in the Office reboot. It seems likely that either Gleeson or Impacciatore will play the editor-in-chief of the paper, taking on the Michael Scott role, but I suspect the characters surrounding the boss will be vastly different from the employees of Dunder Mifflin. So far, the new show is building a diverse ensemble that can allow for new kinds of storylines to be introduced.
The three stars who were just cast are all on the younger side when compared to the original show’s ensemble, and that alone adds a new dynamic to the familiar format. More actors will likely be added in the weeks to come as production gets further underway, and ideally, Peacock will unveil some character details sooner rather than later. That would give a better impression of what viewers can expect from this new Office, which so far sounds like a fresh take on the workplace mockumentary.
Source: NBCUniversal
