The Office follow-up series finally gets a major update

The Office fans, take a breath. It seems that we're one step closer to the follow-up series following news that plans for it have taken a major step forward.

Much-loved series The Office first kicked off in 2001 as a British mockumentary sitcom created by and starring Ricky Gervais, as well as Martin Freeman, Mackenzie Crook and Lucy Davis.

It followed the employees of the Slough branch of a fictional paper company, but much to fans' disappointment, it ended after just two series.

Two years later, a US version of the series launched on NBC – this time starring Steve Carell as the cringe-worthy Michael Scott, the regional manager of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch.

For years, fans have wondered if the show would ever return. And while it won't be a reboot, this anticipated return seems more promising than ever.

According to sources speaking to Deadline, the mastermind behind the show, Greg Daniels - who also adapted the show for American audiences - is exploring ideas for a follow-up series.

In fact, he's even said to have set up a development room with writers which is believed to be kicking off as early as this week.

Daniels previously hinted that he could have a few ideas up his sleeve, after he revealed a 'sister show' could work but definitely not a reboot.

Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Turner

During an interview with The Wrap to discuss his new series Upload, he said: “I don’t like to think of anything as a reboot, you know what I mean?”

“Because I feel like we ended that story beautifully. The characters had closure. I would never want to redo that same show with a different cast, because I think we got the luckiest cast, the best cast ever, in TV, to do that show.

"So the notion of a re-boot is not of interest.”

Instead, Daniels said that a concept similar to the Star Wars spin-offs could be more appealing.

NBC

“The notion of maybe something like the way The Mandalorian is a new show in the Star Wars universe, you know what I mean? Something like the notion of this documentary crew doing a documentary about a different subject,” he added.

“That, I think, could be intriguing and creative. But I don’t even know what you would call that. I don’t know if that’s like a sister show or something.

"I don’t know what the term is. But it doesn’t feel like ‘reboot’ would be the appropriate term for that.”

While it is, of course, very early days, we think this sounds super promising.