Rainn Wilson has shared his thoughts on The Office, but plenty of viewers aren’t convinced by his argument.
Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute in the NBC workplace comedy, said he doubts the series would be produced in the same way now, even though it remains hugely popular with younger audiences and continues to rack up huge viewing numbers on streaming.
The series originally aired from 2005 until 2013 across nine seasons, and it has continued to find new life through repeat viewings, streaming and meme culture.
A follow-up series set in the same universe, The Paper, debuted on Peacock on September 4, 2025, with a mostly new cast and Oscar Nuñez the only original The Office regular returning in a familiar role.
“I feel like there was a period of time where it was really hard to talk about anything,” Wilson told Fox News Digital. “And that’s kind of shifted back now a little bit.
“I do feel like you couldn’t make The Office today,” he told the outlet. “I do think that would be too hard to be as politically incorrect as the show was. I do kind of miss that.”
He went on to explain that the show’s comedy relied heavily on Michael Scott’s lack of self-awareness, with Steve Carell’s character constantly saying the wrong thing and Dwight often feeding into the chaos.
Wilson said the writers were able to draw a lot of comedy from material that was intentionally inappropriate, and he suggested that kind of approach would be far more difficult to pull off now.
Still, many fans pushed back against that view online, with several people arguing that the show’s ongoing popularity today proves otherwise.
“Does he not realize the office exploded in popularity with gen-z during the pandemic?” one questioned, while another said: “Always Sunny is still on the air mind you.”
A third exclaimed: “WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK THEIR SITCOM WAS EDGY AND WOULD NOT BE MADE TODAY!”
A fourth noted: “THE OFFICE reruns are on tv literally every day all day long.”
Not everyone disagreed, though, as some backed Wilson’s point about comedy and creative freedom.
“He’s right. Comedy needs to exist without constraints and censorship. There’s a difference between being funny and being offensive. Not all jokes will land, but commenting on the difference between us, is a unifier if you don’t take yourself too seriously. It’s important to push boundaries because that is what makes people react. Reaction means thinking, which is the whole point of art.”
Even now, the show remains one of the most watched and quoted comedies around the world, though it nearly looked very different behind the scenes.
Carell previously revealed that the series got off to a rough start, and that early reactions were far from encouraging.
“Our pilot was the lowest testing pilot in the history of NBC,” Carell previously told Amy Poehler on her Good Hang podcast. “People really hated it. They actively hated it. And I don’t quite know how it got legs after that.”
He also said Paul Rudd had told him ‘not to audition’.
Considering how the show went on to become a comedy staple, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role.