The Office moved from Netflix to Peacock on January 1st as part of a $500 million deal, and never-before-seen cut scenes are part of the package. First up is a deleted scene from the series finale where Jim and Pam convince Dwight the Matrix is real and he has been selected to enter it.
The final episode of The Office aired on May 16th, 2013, and focused on Dwight’s marriage to Angela and the Dunder Mifflin crew reuniting for a panel discussion one year after their documentary aired. Despite a 52-minute running time, a lot of footage was left on the cutting room floor. “I think the screenplay for the finale runs about 75 pages, maybe more,” director Ken Kwapis said in my book The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s. “Then of that, there were like 40 pages’ worth of alternates and other ideas. There were so many stories to wrap up.”
The original script begins with Dwight, now the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, sitting in his office when a black cat runs past his office two times. “What’s the cat about?” Jim asks the camera. “Fair question. This past year, Dwight’s been running things well. Business is booming. All is good. Then a little voice inside of me said, ‘Jim, what about the pranks?’”
Dwight is eventually led to the warehouse where Hank the security guard (played by the late Hugh Dane) poses as Dorpheus, brother of Morpheus, and invites him to take a red pill and join him in the Matrix. But Dwight is so happy in his new life as Regional Manager that he declines. “Look, no one hates machines more than me,” he says. It’s just, I’m happy. I’m truly happy.”
The Office film vault is bursting with cut scenes like this. Several of them were released on DVD over the years, but they’re digging more out for Peacock to entice fans to sign up. The first two seasons of the show will be available for free on Peacock, but to see the others you’ll need to pay $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year. You can also simply buy the complete series for $69.99 on iTunes or get it on DVD for $159.44. In either case, you’ll never have to worry about it leaving a streaming platform again.
From Rolling Stone US
