Extra, extra, read all about it.
Peacock has officially released the first trailer of “The Office” spinoff show, “The Paper.” The mockumentary is set at a dying Midwestern newspaper in Toledo, Ohio.
In the trailer, text onscreen informs the audience, “Several years ago, a documentary crew filmed the story of Dunder Mifflin. Now they’ve found a new subject.”
The trailer shows an exec talking about how their company sells products made out of paper, including toilet paper, toilet seat protectors, and local newspapers.
“And that is in order of quality,” he quips.
“The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore’s character, Esmerelda, talks directly to the camera – just like how everyone did on “The Office” – and informs us about an article she wrote that she’s “particularly proud of.”
The riveting headline of her article: “You won’t believe how much Ben Affleck tipped his limo driver.”
Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson) then enters and introduces himself to the newspaper office as their new editor-in-chief.
The scene cuts to him sitting in a restaurant, as a woman asks him, “have you read this paper? How do you think it compares to any other paper?”
Ned replies, “It sucks…but we are going to make it better.”
Ned tells Impacciatore’s character, “I hope it’s not too disruptive to come in and have me shake everything up.”
It’s revealed that the paper is called “The Toledo Truth Teller.”
At a staff meeting, Ned asks employees how many of them have written for a paper before.
After an awkward silence, one man recalls writing a paper in high school, while another man says, “I’ve tweeted.” A third man says, “I’m in a group text.”
Talking to an unseen person, Ned describes his “volunteer” employees as “motivated and tenacious Buckeyes, hunting for news.”
“The Office” star Oscar Nunez enters, telling the camera, “I’m not agreeing to any of this” and curses, as the trailer ends.
“The Office” originally began as a British show that aired from 2001 to 2003, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Gervais also starred.
The American version of the show, helmed by Greg Daniels, starred Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, and Jenna Fisher, and aired on NBC from 2005 to 2013, following employees at Dunder Mifflin paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The show quickly became a phenomenon, and despite ending in 2013, it enjoyed a new surge in popularity during the 2020 COVID pandemic.
“The Paper” is co-created by Daniels and Michael Korman and is set in Toledo rather than Scranton, with a new cast.
Nunez is the only returning “The Office” cast member in the trailer, and no other returning cast has been announced.
“I will be watching but I will not be showing up. It’s just a new thing and there’s really no reason for my character to show up in something like that,” Carell, 62, told the Hollywood Reporter.
He said, “But I’m excited about it, it sounds like a great concept. I love the idea.”
In the first look photos, life at their office looks as wacky as it was at Dunder Mifflin, as one man wears a coffee filter on his head in one shot.
In another snap, Impacciatore’s character pinches a fellow employee’s cheeks like she’s a child.
In May, Gleeson told People that he got some advice from Krasinski.
“He was wonderful. I mean, his big advice that he gave me was to do it,” he said.
The “Harry Potter” actor added, “And the same with Steve Carell, another just wonderful actor who I’d worked with before. Their advice was, if it’s Greg Daniels, you should do it because getting to work with him is a treat that not many people get to have.”
During a 2022 interview with The Post, Daniels recalled that he especially liked stretching out the Jim (Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fisher) romance over several seasons on “The Office.”
“The key to it is having obstacles,” he explained.
“It could have that poignant feeling that you have when you can’t see a way for them to get together.”
In June, Gleeson told People that he doesn’t think his “The Paper,” character, Ned, is similar to Carell’s boorish boss, Michael Scott.
Gleeson, whose father is “The Banshees of Inisherin” star Brendan Gleeson, explained, “I think if you’re trying to compete with what Steve [Carell] did or with what Ricky Gervais did, I think it would be a massive mistake. They are geniuses who are incredible in loads of different ways.”
“We made a whole new character,” he added. “And it’s a whole new sort of setup, but I hope people will find a reason to love him as well, just in a different way than they did the guys before.”
“The Paper” will premiere Sept. 4 on Peacock.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
