Steve Carell Will Never Star in ‘The Office’ Reboot: ‘It’s Best to Let It Exist As It Was’
Zack Sharf
“The Office” fans had a pretty exciting start to December thanks to two cast reunions: One on “Saturday Night Live” during which host Steve Carell brought out former co-stars Ed Helms, Ellie Kemper, and Jenna Fischer during his monologue, and another non-televised reunion between cast and crew members. Both events got fans clamoring once again for a potential reboot of the beloved NBC sitcom, but star Carell unfortunately remains uninterested.
“I’ll tell you, no,” Carell said when asked by Collider about a reboot. “The show is way more popular now than when it was on the air. I just can’t see it being the same thing, and I think most folks would want it to be the same thing, but it wouldn’t be. Ultimately, I think it’s maybe best to leave well enough alone and just let it exist as what it was.”
Carell continued, “You’d literally have to have all of the same writers, the same producers, the same directors, and the same actors, and even with all of those components, it just wouldn’t be the same. So, no. But, I love the show. It was the most exciting time, and all of those people are my friends. We all love it. It was a special thing. It was a special thing before people thought it was a special thing. It was special to us, before other people started feeling that way. But, no.”
Carell starred in the lead role of Michael Scott for the first seven seasons of “The Office.” The actor has said in the past he is not interested in a reboot, but those two December reunions had many “Office” fans wondering if Carell was slowly changing his mind. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
“It’s really flattering that it’s somehow caught people’s attention, so many years later,” Carell said about the sitcom’s enduring popularity. “But, I don’t think you can recapture that same magic. I really think it comes down to that. If it was magic. I don’t want to overstate it. It was just a TV show. I just wouldn’t want to make the mistake of making a less good version of it. The odds wouldn’t be in its favor, in terms of it recapturing exactly what it was, the first time.”
Carell has had a busy awards season this year with starring roles in “Beautiful Boy,” “Vice,” and “Welcome to Marwen.” The latter two titles will both open in theaters during the Christmas holiday.
