‘The Office’ Writers Loved ‘Harry Potter’ so Much They Made Fake Wands
Part of the reason that The Office has attained and sustained such incredible success is because of the many talented writers that worked on the show. The writers (many of whom doubled as members of the cast) helped create a truly unique and hilarious show and are constantly being praised even years after the series wrapped. And it would appear that working in the writers’ room at The Office at times rivaled the fun and chaos experienced in the Dunder Mifflin Scranton office.
Naturally, the writers of The Office had their fair share of inside jokes. In fact, those jokes occasionally made their way into episodes of the show. For example, since the writers were obsessed with the show The Wire, they had Michael Scott name drop the hit drama and proclaim that he didn’t understand it. They then took things one step further and contacted Idris Elba (who played Stringer Bell on The Wire) to offer him a recurring guest star role on The Office. Elba accepted the invitation and ended up playing the polarizing Charles Miner for a few episodes.
‘The Office’ made numerous ‘Harry Potter’ references throughout the nine seasons
Of course, The Wire was hardly the only thing that The Office writers were collectively obsessed with. The overwhelming majority of them also had a huge affinity for Harry Potter as well, and thus found a way to put it in the show many times. Fans may recall that in the “Money” episode Dwight reads Jim, Pam, and Mose an excerpt of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as a bedtime story. Meanwhile, in “The Convict” episode, “Prison Mike” tells his employees that the worst thing about prison “was the dementors.” And who can forget the “Stress Relief” episode when Kelly declared that she’d rather make out with Lord Voldemort rather than Michael.
But The Office writers didn’t just limit their love of Harry Potter to the screen. They also had fun pretending that they were witches and wizards in real life. In fact, they even created their own wands at one point and used them to cast spells on one another. In an interview with Office Tally, Jen Celotta (who wrote for the show) recalled the memorable experience.
The writers made intricate wands out of chopsticks
“There was a time, way back in Season 2 or 3, where the room was taken over by a love of Harry Potter,” The Office writer confessed. “I think Greg [Daniels] was mostly the driving force, but I believe Mike [Schur] was a big fan, too. At its high point (or low point), we each had chopsticks, ornately decorated as magic wands and we would cast joke spells on each other. And it didn’t stop there — we each had Wand Stands — each rudimentarily fashioned from tacks sticking into our writers room wall, where our magic wands rested when we weren’t using them. It was fun. And I’m not kidding.”
Clearly, The Office writers were just as obsessed with Harry Potter as the rest of the world. We’re sure Potterheads appreciate the many hilarious references to the boy who lived within the show.
