What Really Happened to the Dwight Schrute Spin-off? Rainn Wilson Finally Spills

Rainn Wilson is still thinking about the one that got away: The Farm, the Dwight Schrute spin-off that NBC shot down before it even left the barn. He just explained why it died, why he thinks the network blew it, and how The Office only truly clicked with NBC long after it was gone.

So why did NBC pass on The Farm?

On The Last Laugh podcast, Wilson says the spin-off ran into a regime change. The new bosses wanted big, glossy multi-cam comedies, chasing a back-to-Friends vibe, and they simply were not into Office spin-offs. That pivot, more than anything creative, is what iced The Farm.

"They were just not interested at all in Office spinoffs at the time."

Wilson is convinced NBC left serious money on the table by walking away. He put it in, uh, Dwight terms.

"Had they taken The Farm, they’d probably have another billion dollars in the bank. Even now, all the people that have seen The Office 20 times, they’re going to watch The Farm at least once or twice."

The weird, inside-baseball timeline

This part is kind of wild: NBC officially passed on The Farm before the audience even saw the backdoor pilot. The episode still aired during The Office season 9, but the decision had already been made behind the scenes. Wilson had to confirm the bad news himself on Twitter in 2012.

• The Farm existed as a backdoor pilot during The Office season 9 (the show’s final season)
• NBC declined the spin-off before that episode aired
• Wilson confirmed in a 2012 tweet that The Farm would not move forward
• The Office ended in 2013; years later, Netflix streaming numbers revealed how massive it had become

Would The Farm have been as good as The Office?

Wilson is realistic about that part. He does not oversell it.

"Would it have been as good as The Office? No. No way. Not even close. Would it have been good? Would it have been solid? Would it have been a good solid comedy? Yeah, it would have... and I think they really missed out."

On The Office’s legacy (and the parts that did not age well)

Wilson says NBC did not really understand the show’s long-term value until years after it ended, when Netflix viewership turned it into a streaming juggernaut. He also calls out episodes that play very differently now, pointing to the Benihana Christmas storyline as an example of material that is, in his words, jaw-droppingly horrific.

His read on the show’s DNA is blunt: it centered on clueless, insensitive, racist, sexist characters as a mirror to American culture. If anyone tried to make a new version in 2025, he says it would have to be very, very different.