With James Spader leaving The Office, and Rainn Wilson leaving early next season for a Dwight spinoff (with showrunner Paul Lieberstein at the helm, another soon to be Office exile), there's been a lot of talk about what will become of the long-running NBC comedy next year. It has yet to be officially picked up for another (ninth!) season and much of the cast still has to re-up their contracts (John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Ed Helms). Now Deadline is reporting that there are now serious talks about "rebooting" the series.
Yes, the word reboot is in quotes because it wouldn't be a pure reboot. Deadline claims that Office EP Greg Daniels is considering refeshing the show - a 2.0 version that will feature new characters along with some old ones. Daniels is supposedly setting up a meeting to pitch this new "Office 2.0" to NBC execs. Deadline's also reporting that much of the cast want next season to be their last, and that the number of episodes that the stars actually sign on to be in is also up in the air. So it could be that next year's Office turns into something more resembling the final season of Scrubs; with a new cast supported by the occasional appearance of one, or more, of the old stars.
Big fan of The Office, but it was only a matter of time before they did something along these lines. Hopefully this "reboot" they're talking about works out for the show.