‘The Office’: Will a Director’s Cut Ever Be Released?
Many fans of The Office wonder if the show will ever be re-released with deleted scenes and extended footage. Two of the show’s stars recently talked about the idea of a director’s cut of The Office and some of the deleted scenes that it could include.
A lot of scenes were cut from ‘The Office’
Office star Brian Baumgartner started another podcast — The Office Deep Dive. Like he did with An Oral History of The Office, Baumgartner uses the show to analyze The Office with his former co-stars, writers, and crew. In one of the show’s first episodes, Baumgartner connected with Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute in the series. During their discussion, Baumgartner highlighted some of the funniest scenes editors cut from The Office — of which there were many.
Is there a director’s cut of ‘The Office’?
At this time, there isn’t a special release or director’s cut of The Office. Many fans have long been asking about a re-release of The Office featuring deleted scenes.
In the past, a fan-made account called The Office Extended used to share videos with the deleted scenes edited into every episode of the series. Those uploads no longer exist, likely because of licensing issues.
Will ‘The Office’ director’s cut ever come out?
A director’s cut of The Office isn’t official, but Wilson thinks it’s a good idea.
“I don’t know if there’s some vault that has all of The Office material — not the first cut, but the rough cut that would get passed around for notes — [the episode] that was too long — the 24-minute cuts of episodes were always way better,” Wilson admitted during the podcast.
Wilson recalled it being “a pain” to cut episodes down from the “25-minute sweet spot” to 21 minutes that they needed to be to air with commercials. But some of those clips were the funniest in the series.
“I think that would be a smart money-making scheme,” Wilson pointed out. “To re-release director’s cuts of all the episodes and let them be 24 to 29 minutes long.”
Rainn Wilson was ‘p*ssed’ they didn’t include this scene in ‘The Office’
Wilson also mentioned some of the deleted scenes he’d like fans to see, should there ever be a director’s cut.
“I think there was a lot more with me and Ellie [Kemper] doing Dothraki early on for Game of Thrones,” Wilson said. “They cut that down to almost nothing. I was p*ssed.”
He said the Dothraki scene part of a “C-story.” The “A” and “B-stories” — those stories involving Michael Scott (Steve Carell) or Jim (John Krasinksi) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) were always going to take precedence when it came to making an episode.
“Sometimes Dwight is in the ‘A-story,'” Wilson added. “But most of the time he’s in the ‘C-story’ and that’s the one that gets cut to the bone.”
Brian Baumgartner’s hilarious scene that was cut from ‘The Office’
Baumgartner also had a scene cut from the show he wished made it into the episode about Jan’s (Melora Hardin) baby shower.
“Jan is having the baby, and Kevin asks her where she got her sperm donated from,” Baumgartner said.
Jan says, ‘A very exclusive place, you wouldn’t know it.’ Kevin says, ‘The one behind the iHop?’ The look on Steve’s and her face and the idea that Jan’s baby might have been Kevin’s was pure comedy.
Fortunately, Peacock subscribers can access many of the deleted scenes from The Office. At this time, it’s unclear if a physical version of The Office director’s cut will ever be released.
