The Office: Australian Remake Gets Prime Video Premiere Date

A new version of The Office is coming to Australia — and now it has an official airdate thanks to Prime Video. The new series, which stars comedian Felicity Ward (Time Bandits) in the role of the world’s worst boss, will premiere on October 18th. The premise for the series is a bit different from the U.S. version, but feels at home in the same universe. In it, Hannah Howard (Felicity Ward), the managing director of Flinley Craddick packaging company, learns that corporate will be closing down her branch and converting all the employees to remote work. She negotiates a deal to keep the branch open and keep her “work family” together if she can hit some astronomical goals, something that her subordinates now have to live with and attempt to execute (from the official synopsis, via Deadline).

Based on the U.K. series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the U.S. version of The Office was shot in a mockumentary style and centered on the lives of the employees of the Scranton, PA branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company. Following its success, the franchise was expanded, with more than a dozen countries making their own take on The Office. Most of them had pretty limited success.

The U.S. series made huge stars out of Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, and Jon Krasinski, and helped supercharge the careers of a number of the other character actors in its ensemble. It started out as one of the lowest-rated shows on NBC and was nearly cancelled, but by the time it wrapped up in 2013, had become one of the most beloved and successful sitcoms in a generation. More than a decade later, it remains one of the most-binged shows on any streaming platform.

Rumors of a sequel or spinoff series have been in the air basically ever since the show ended. In its final season, producers tried and failed to develop a series called The Farm, which would have centered on the exploits of Dwight Shrute’s strange family and the goings-on at their beet farm. A backdoor pilot for the series failed to catch on with audiences, and the network passed, but the idea of returning to The Office has seemed inevitable anyway.

Ward’s version of The Office features an Australian cast including Edith Poor, Steen Raskopoulos, Shari Sebbens, Josh Thomson, Jonny Brugh, Susan Ling Young, Raj Labade, Lucy Schmidt, Zoe Terakes, Pallavi Sharda and Claude Jabbour, with Susie Youssef, Justin Rosniiak, Carlo Ritchie, Rick Donald and Chris Bunton in guest roles.