Why Oscar Nuñez Was the Only ‘The Office’ Star Brought Back for ‘The Paper’

Liam James1 hour agoLast Updated: 28 August 2025

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Oscar Nunez attends Universal Television

When viewers tune in to The Paper, the new spinoff of The Office set at a Midwestern newspaper, they will be met with a familiar face.

Oscar Nuñez, who played fan-favorite Dunder Mifflin accountant Oscar Martínez in the original series, is back for the new show, alongside a fresh cast of Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg and Ramona Young — and behind the camera, the same fictional documentary crew that filmed at Dunder Mifflin, now looking for their next subjects. At the series’ Los Angeles premiere on Wednesday, creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman explained the decision to have Oscar be a connecting piece between the two projects.

“He’s fabulous, he’s hilarious. Also if you look at the finale of The Office, the characters have a lot of wrap up and they were mostly going in different directions, leaving Dunder Mufflin; Oscar was kind of the same as he was in the beginning when he was still there, so it made sense,” Daniels told The Hollywood Reporter. Koman added “Oscar’s just really funny and I love him, and I thought he works really well because he blends in to almost any ensemble. He makes the show funnier,” and after The Office “his story was a little more open-ended. So it made sense to bring him back because it felt like there was more story there.”

But don’t expect too many more cast members Office cast members to show up at The Paper, as Daniels explained, “Most of the cast, their stories had closure and I don’t think they really want to open them up again just to guest on another show. It was very important for me to create a show that would stand on its own and make its own name for itself and not need guest stars from the old show every week to get [people to] tune in.”

Nuñez himself said his return was a “slow process” and came after many conversations with Daniels, as he joked that he doesn’t think this former castmates are too jealous that he’s the chosen one: “They’re doing OK, no one’s starving. I think they’re happy for me.”

Several former stars of The Office were in attendance at the premiere, as Ellie Kemper, Paul Lieberstein, Creed Bratton and Kate Flannery all walked the carpet. Kemper — who is married to Koman — teased when she heard of Nuñez’s return that she didn’t “want to speak to him ever again. I was like ‘Why does he get to share in a joyous second iteration?’” But after watching the first episode, she says, “He’s just fantastic.”

Koman also explained the thinking behind his and Daniels’ unique spinoff concept, which is set in the same world as The Office but has fairly little overlap with the original series.

“Greg originally ran the idea past me about creating a documentary-style show at a newspaper, specifically a newspaper that was having a difficult time and somebody comes in and is trying to put it back on its feet. I just responded to that idea and really liked it, and said yes. Then he ran the idea past me that it was connected to The Office,” the co-creator recalled. “I was already on board with the basic premise; what I really liked about the second idea was that the same crew that had made The Office documentary would go look for a new subject, come across this and feel like ‘Yes, this is the next project we want to do.’”

He continued, “I also really liked the idea that this documentary exists — the original Office documentary exists in our world so our characters would know what it looks like to be filmed at work over a period of years. It doesn’t play a big part, but I like the reality of that because I feel like that’s how real life works; we all watch reality shows and documentaries and we sort of know what it means now to be filmed in a way that we didn’t 20 years ago.”

The Paper debuts all 10 episodes of its first season Sept. 4 on Peacock.

Source: Hollywoodreporter

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