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25th September 2023
08:51am BST
Speculation that The Office may return has been ignited by news that screenwriters have reached a tentative deal with studio bosses.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike for almost give months.
It is the longest strike to hit Hollywood in decades and has halted most film and TV production. A separate dispute involves actors, who are also on strike.
The writers' walkout, which began on 2 May, has cost the California economy billions of dollars.
The WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have now revealed it has come to a "tentative agreement", which could signal the end of the strikes very soon. WGA members must still have a final say and the leadership and union members need to agree a three-year contract with the AMPTP before they return to work.
The guild said it was not yet calling off the strike, but "we are, as of today, suspending WGA picketing". Variety reported that staff on late-night talk shows could return to work as soon as Tuesday following the announcement, adding broadcasts could resume as soon as October.
For all The Office fans, that means The Office reboot may now be in motion.
In a statement released Sunday, the WGA wrote: "We have reached a tentative agreement on a new 2023 MBA, which is to say an agreement in principle on all deal points, subject to drafting final contract language.
"What we have won in this contract – most particularly, everything we have gained since May 2nd – is due to the willingness of this membership to exercise its power, to demonstrate its solidarity, to walk side-by-side, to endure the pain and uncertainty of the past 146 days.
"It is the leverage generated by your strike, in concert with the extraordinary support of our union siblings, that finally brought the companies back to the table to make a deal. "We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership."
Writing for Puck News, Matthew Belloni and Jonathan Handel suggested the industry is about to see "a firehose of announcements of projects and casting that have been held back for fear of bad optics or violating guild rules".
They continue: "Greg Daniels is set to do a reboot of The Office, for instance. Disney’s Dana Walden will finally be able to announce the return of her BFF Ryan Murphy from Netflix. A ton of high-profile movie scripts will come in. The industry will chug back to normal." But is an Office reboot actually going to happen?
Daniels - who adapted the UK Office for the US version - has previously stated he didn't have time to do an Office reboot. But that stance softened in March last year, with Daniels saying "it would take a long time" to revisit the iconic show without disappointing fans. He went on to say that he would likely approach it like "the way The Mandalorian is like an extension of Star Wars. "But I don't know if that would be something people would want or not, it's hard to tell."
NBC greenlist a reboot of the series earlier this year.
As well as issues around pay, striking writers also fear the impact of artificial intelligence making them less employable. Negotiations also broke down over staffing levels and the residuals that writers receive for popular streaming shows.
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