The Office may have ended, but its world is far from over because its spinoff, The Paper, carries on the mockumentary style and humour, introducing new characters on a new mission.
This time around, the same documentary crew that followed Michael Scott and his employees at Scranton’s Dunder Mifflin is focusing on a Midwest local newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, as it tries to get back on its feet with a team of (untrained) volunteer journalists.
Global News spoke with The Office director Greg Daniels, who is back at the helm of The Paper, and co-creator Michael Koman about the new series and their decision to bring back Oscar Nuñez , who is reprising his role from the original series.
“The bones of the show is that it’s a documentary and the documentary crew is the main connective tissue. We obviously have Oscar, which is wonderful, but the crew is looking for another subject for a documentary and they start in the paper company following the absorption of the paper company into a larger conglomerate that’s organized around things that use paper, like toilet paper and local newspapers,” Daniels said.
Daniels said it was an easy decision to bring Nuñez back because he’s a “great actor.”
“His character didn’t have the same closure that a lot of the other characters did in the finale of The Office. There’s still more adventures for him to go [on] without undoing anything that we had settled,” he added.
Pictured: (l-r) Duane Shepard Sr. as Barry, Oscar Nunez as Oscar.
John P. Fleenor/PEACOCK
Daniels and Koman said that in the beginning of the show, Oscar is “horrified that he’s about to embark on it again.”
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“He doesn’t really want to participate but the other characters are more innocent and they’re just explaining what they do at The Paper. They start off a little bit dispirited until Domhnall Gleeson shows up,” Daniels revealed.
Pictured: (l-r) Sabrina Impacciatore as Esmeralda, Oscar Nunez as Oscar, Domhnall Gleeson as Ned, Gbemisola Ikumelo as Adelola.
Aaron Epstein/PEACOCK
The series’ cast features Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young and Tim Key as they try to bring the Midwestern newspaper Toledo Truth-Teller back to life.
Pictured: (l-r) Chelsea Frei as Mare, Ramona Young as Nicole, Melvin Gregg as Detrick, Gbemisola Ikumelo as Adelola, Alex Edelman as Adam, Eric Rahill as Travis, Oscar Nunez as Oscar.
John P. Fleenor/PEACOCK
The new series has already been picked up for a second season.
(Watch the interview in the video, top.)
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‘The Paper’ premieres Thursday, September 4 at 10 p.m. ET on Showcase in Canada. It streams exclusively on STACKTV.
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