First The Paper trailer isn't shy about its connections to The Office

Domhnall Gleeson stars in the Peacock spin-off, but the trailer's best jokes are reserved for a returning Oscar Nuñez.

By William Hughes  |  August 7, 2025 | 11:00am
The Paper, Photo: Peacock
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First The Paper trailer isn't shy about its connections to The Office
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The first full trailer for Peacock’s <i>The Paper</i>—the new spin-off set in the same universe as NBC’s massively successful American remake of The Office—wastes very little time in establishing its ties to the original show: We’re told, right up top, that this is the new pulp-adjacent project from the same documentary crew that spent so many years filming the Dunder-Mifflin hordes. It’s similarly efficient in letting viewers know who, say, their new Jim is going to be, with Domhnall Gleeson’s Ned quickly introducing himself as the straight-laced normie having to wrangle a staff of oddballs, while cracking jokes and smiles with a similarly sane female co-worker (Chelsea Frei).

Said oddballs, meanwhile, include Tim Key, The White Lotus‘ Sabrina Impacciatore, American Vandal‘s Melvin Gregg, Ramona Young, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, and Eric Rahill, who round out the staff of a local Ohio  newspaper that seems to have  recruited its staff entirely from a roster of extremely quirky sitcom character archetypes. (Is it worth noting here that all the non-Michael, non-Dwight characters on The Office started out kind of normal, and then got crazy as we get to know them? Probably overkill, since this thing is going to be fending off comparisons to the original series every second of its existence.)

The trailer saves its biggest connection for its end, which reveals that poor Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nuñez) is apparently doomed to have these documentarians intrude into his life no matter where he goes. (His determination to render any footage of him unusable makes up the trailer’s one genuine laugh-out-loud moment.)

The Paper debuts its first four episodes on Peacock on Thursday, September 4; it’ll roll out two new episodes every week after until September 25.

 
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