Dwight Actor Speaks Out 13 Years Later on The Office Decision That Disappointed Fans!

As “The Paper,” a sequel to the renowned American series “The Office,” kicks off on Peacock, actor Rainn Wilson, who portrayed the eccentric Dwight Shrute for nine seasons, has opened up about his experiences on the podcast “The Last Laugh.”

“They Wanted Big, Shiny Shows”

Recalling his filming days with Steve Carell, John Krasinski, and Jenna Fischer, Wilson also discussed a decision that disappointed fans 13 years ago: the cancellation of the spin-off “The Farm,” which was meant to follow Dwight on his new professional adventures.

Although the pilot for this project was shot and aired as a special episode in season 9, the network ultimately chose not to proceed, much to the dismay of viewers and Wilson himself.

“Back then, NBC was under new management. They wanted to create big, shiny, flashy multi-cam series and return to a ‘Friends’-like style,” Wilson, who played Dwight, explained.

“I Think They Really Missed Out”

“At that time, they had absolutely no interest in ‘The Office’ spin-offs. If they had picked up ‘The Farm,’ they probably would have made another billion dollars. Even now, everyone who has watched ‘The Office’ 20 times would at least check out ‘The Farm’ once or twice. Would it have been as good as ‘The Office’? No, no chance. Far from it. Would it have been good? (…) Would it have been a solid comedy? Yes, probably, and we would have done some really cool things. I think they really missed out.”

Wilson continued by noting that NBC took a very long time to truly understand the potential of ‘The Office’ and to realize just how many fans it had by seeing the number of views on Netflix.

Would you like to see Dwight in ‘The Paper’?

(Re)discover the series trailer…