“The Office” star Rainn Wilson recently told Fox News Digital that the popular NBC sitcom could never have been made in today’s cultural climate.
“I feel like I couldn’t make ‘The Office’ today,” Wilson said. “I think it’s too hard to be politically incorrect like that show. And I kind of miss that.”
He also added that there was a lot of “really inappropriate” humor on The Office, especially from his character Dwight Schrute and Steve Carell’s Michael Scott. Even though Michael and Dwight were portrayed as not being “self-aware,” Wilson thought their antics wouldn’t work in 2026.
“We exploited it and created a lot of great, really inappropriate stuff,” Wilson recalled. “But I don’t think you can get away with that today, even considering the fact that you’re portraying that character as just an idiot.”
Wilson played the role of Schrute for all nine seasons of “The Office,” which aired for 201 episodes on NBC from 2005 to 2013.
Despite Wilson’s comments, “The Office” recently received a sequel series, “The Paper,” to premiere on Peacock in September 2025. Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Fry, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key, and Oscar Nunez, The Paper follows the life of a struggling Midwestern newspaper. The second season is expected to begin later this year.
This isn’t the first time Wilson has opened up about how The Office pushes boundaries with humor. He said on the podcast The Last Laugh in September 2025 that The Office could be “shockingly” offensive and that it would be a “completely different” show if it were released now.
“Listen, that Christmas episode of Benihana where Michael and Andy draw with a Sharpie on one of the Asian women they brought home from a Christmas party is shockingly terrifying,” Wilson said. “And this is a difficult conversation, isn’t it? They’re ignorant, and in their ignorance they’re racist and insensitive, and they say the wrong thing all the time. And that’s Michael, Dwight, Andy, and by extension Kevin. So this is a show centered around ignorant, insensitive, racist, sexist people, and in many ways it’s a reflection of America.”
