Entertainment

‘The Office’ Might Be Coming Back & The Memes Are Already Amazing

by Lilli Petersen
NBC

Take a deep breath, everyone. It looks like all those rumors of a reboot of The Office might be true after all. On Dec. 18, TVLine reported that NBC is looking to bring back everyone’s favorite workplace-based comedy. And considering the show has provided basically every gif on the internet — well, you can always rely on the fans. Memes about The Office reboot rumors are basically everything the internet deserves.

I mean, this deserves a major freak out, so I can't blame Twitter for going nuts. But it's both good news and bad — the show, which may come back for the 2018-2019 season, will reportedly feature a mix of new and old cast members. Obviously, we won't know what's going on with the new before the show is (all things willing) confirmed, but don't get your hopes up for the old, either. TVLine reports that Steve Carrell, whose portrayal of Dunder Mifflin Regional Manager Michael Scott made the show so memorable, won't be involved in the reboot. Womp womp.

It's definitely not stopping fans from getting excited — or angry — about the whole thing, though. Some people think this is a great idea. Some people think it's a terrible one. Some people think it's just a great opportunity to share their favorite reaction gif.

In short, fans have a lot of feelings.

Some people were happy.

Some people were not.

Most of the "not," by the way, revolved around the fact that Carrell was reportedly not coming back. Which, if you ask me, seems like it has a pretty simple solution. *cough*pleaseSteve*cough*

And some people were just already tweeting out The Office memes because, you know, it's Monday night.

What else are you gonna do?

The Office was originally on air from 2005 to 2013, so it's been a few years of emptiness since we last had a fresh episode. And while most fans were thrilled and surprised to hear the news, these rumors have actually been in the works for awhile. Back in August, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt told Deadline that he had been talking to showrunner Greg Daniels about the possibility of bringing the show back. Greenblatt said,

We often talk about The Office, I've talked to [Daniels] four times over the past few years. It's always, 'maybe some day but not now.' There is certainly an open invitation but we don't have anything happening right now. If he wants to do it, I would do it.

Sounds awful hopeful to me!

Another piece of potentially good news? In the same interview, Greenblatt said that he had similar conversations with Tina Fey about 30 Rock. He said,

I'd say to Tina 'Hey, you think some more 30 Rock makes any sense?' She'd say, 'I don't know maybe.'

Now, I have no idea if there's some kind of pact between the showrunners / execs that if one comes back, they all do, but I can hope. I can hope.

And if you're on team "This Is Awesome," there's even better news — there are hints that a reboot could be likely (for The Office, not 30 Rock. Sorry, we'll have to wait on that one). As TVLine points out, NBC's most recent reboot, Will and Grace, did really well. Like, really well. The reboot was nominated for two Golden Globes, adding on to the 27 (!!) nominations it got when it was originally on the air. So it wouldn't be surprising if NBC decided the time was ripe to pick up one of their other most popular shows and give it a dust-off.

And while we wait for confirmation? We'll always have the gifs.