The first trailer for the highly-anticipated “The Office” spinoff, titled “The Paper,” has arrived!
Peacock has released a nearly-two minute clip from the new comedy that shows actor Domhnall Gleeson taking on a managerial role similar to the position Steve Carell held as Michael Scott in the NBC mockumentary, which aired for nine seasons.
The teaser opens with a message explaining how the upcoming spinoff is connected to the original series. “Several years ago, a documentary crew filmed the story of Dunder Mifflin,” the text reads. “Now they’ve found a new subject.”
The new subject is a company based in Ohio that sells paper products: toilet tissue, toilet seat protectors and local newspapers, as Tim Key’s character explains. “The Office” also focused paper and office supplies company.
We meet some of the staff, like Sabrina Impacciatore’s character, who is a writer. The audience is also introduced to Gleeson’s character, Ned Samson, who announces he is the team’s new editor-in-chief for The Toledo Truth-Teller.
Ned tries to settle into his role while the team gathers for a staff meeting in the conference room, a place where many funny moments occurred on “The Office.” We see more of the reporters and glimpses of their quirky personalities before a familiar place appears: Oscar Nuñez reprising his role of Oscar Martínez from the beloved NBC comedy.
Oscar spots the camera crew and instantly has a concerned look on his face. “Not again,” he balks. “I’m not agreeing to any of this.”
He then says that this time around he will make his footage “unusable” and starts to swear. “Use that,” he challenges.
“The Paper” will follow “a historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it,” the logline explains. The series, which stems from “The Office” creator Greg Daniels and Michael Koman (“Nathan For You”) also stars Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman and Ramona Young. The long list of guest stars includes Eric Rahill, Tracy Letts, Molly Ephraim, Mo Welch, Allan Havey, Duane Shepard Sr., Nate Jackson and Nancy Lenehan.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who created and starred in the original British “Office,” are among the executive producers.
“The Paper” will debut on Peacock Thursday, Sept. 4, with four episodes. Two new episodes will be released every following Thursday until Sept. 25, for 10 total episodes.
During an appearance on TODAY last year, Carell shared the advice he gave to Gleeson when the actor reached out to him wondering if he should take the part.
“He called me up and (asked), ‘Well, should I do this?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I mean it’s Greg Daniels. You’ll have a ball,’” he recalled.
Carell added, “I think he’s gonna be great.”
(Peacock, Universal Television and TODAY share the same parent company, NBC Universal.)
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