Finally, after months and months of wondering, it has been confirmed that Steve Carell will not be returning to The Office in its final season by showrunner Greg Daniels (who also adds some light spoilers about the rest of the final season).
Though many fans will be sad to hear this news, it had always seemed unlikely that Carell would reprise his role as Michael Scott in the show’s final season.
Last week at the TCA press tour, we reported that NBC’s Robert Greenblatt alluded that maybe Carell would return but that it wasn’t likely, saying:
“I’m hopeful but I don’t think he will. He left in the way that he wanted that character to leave and I think he and [Office executive producer] Greg [Daniels] have talked about it and I don’t think he’ll be back.”
This sentiment was confirmed yesterday at the TCA, as Deadline.com confirmed that Greg Daniels, the executive producer and showrunner of The Office, put the idea to rest saying that Carell “was very much of the opinion that the ‘Goodbye Michael’ episode and story arc leading up to it was the goodbye to the fans and the show.”
Further, it seems that the focus will be for the rest of the cast saying goodbye to the show for the rest of this season with Daniels adding that this season “is the goodbye that the rest of the show gets to have.”
Interestingly, Daniels also mentions that the decision to make season 9 the final season was made by most of the people who are producers of the show (which include several people in the cast), but that The Office was doing well for NBC and probably could have been picked up for another season had it remained an option.
Daniels also gave some interesting information (light spoilers ahead) about the rest of the season saying that next week’s episode will be “the beginning of the end” of the show. He also noted that someone is fired in episode 15 but for obvious reasons wouldn’t say who. The showrunner also mentioned that some guest stars and series regulars may make appearances including Mindy Kaling who left the show to work on her own show The Mindy Project on Fox.
Are you sad to know that Steve Carell won’t be making an appearance at all in the final season of The Office?
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