Making The Office without Steve Carell was as hard as watching it, apparently

Dwight Schrute actor Rainn Wilson describes the "struggle" of making The Office without its star Steve Carell.

By Matt Schimkowitz | June 29, 2025 | 5:24pm

Screenshot: YouTube

TV News The Office

Making The Office without Steve Carell was as hard as watching it, apparently

Thanks to streaming, memes, and a dearth of competition, The Office has had remarkable staying power for a show that did a zombie walk for its final two seasons. After a solid seven-season run, star Steve Carell quit the show to pursue a lucrative film career, splitting his time between whispering in dramas and wrangling minions. Sadly, without Carell to provide a gravitational pull for the Jims, Pams, and Dwights to orbit, the show drifted aimlessly in space, putting the Nard Dog behind the big guy’s desk as the show saw what would happen if Jim and Pam went to Roy’s wedding. It wasn’t great, and according to Rainn Wilson, it was a “struggle” to make.

Speaking to Josh Peck and Ben Soffer on their Good Guys podcast, Wilson explained that the show became “a little chaotic” as they tried to settle on a tone and a lead for the rest of the show. Carell’s Michael Scott was “the comic engine of the show” and “one of the greatest comic actors in American history,” and losing that was a “struggle.” Not that Wilson doesn’t understand why Carell left. The actor insists that the cast and crew “knew it was coming for a long time,” what with Carell starring in Burt Wonderstone and Get Smart, which were “in 2,000 theaters at the multiplex, so of course we knew he was going to leave The Office when he can!”