The days of Michael Scott heading the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company are long gone, but The office continues to expand its franchise with more spin-offs. The next one will imagine office life in Australia, and a preview has been revealed via a new trailer.
Shared by Prime Video ahead of the show's October 18 premiere, the trailer features Felicity Ward as Hannah Howard, marking the first time a female actor has led a Office series. Hannah works as the CEO of a packaging company that is not all that different from Dunder Mifflin, as she is joined by several characters who might recall those from the well-known British and American versions of The officeThe trailer, published on YouTube, can be seen below.
Unfortunately, the response from fans hasn't been stellar. One prominent comment on the YouTube video that received thousands of likes noted, “Dear Prime. It's not too late to eliminate it.” One person added: “I can already tell this will be cancelled after the first season.” Someone else said, “If this is the best you've got for the trailer the show is doomed to fail.”
If this is the best you got from the trailer, the series is doomed to fail.
Another popular comment read: “I've been confined to a wheelchair for the last 20 years, today I got up and walked just to turn all of this off.”
“I’m not sure what the motivation is for this,” another person said. “There was a meeting at Prime where they said, ‘We need to make our own version of a 20-year-old show, remove everything that made the original funny, replace the funny parts with things that aren’t actually funny, cast cartoon characters, and then cut the worst trailer possible’?”
The Office has had many international adaptations
There have been many international adaptations of The office made in the past. It was originally created in the UK by Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, although Greg Daniels took the brand to greater heights with the immense success of the American version. The series has also had adaptations made in other locations such as Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Sweden.
The official synopsis for the Australian version reads: “Hannah Howard is the CEO of packaging company Fliney Craddick. When she receives news from head office that they will close her branch and make everyone work from home, she goes into survival mode, making promises she can't keep in order to keep her “work family” together. The Fliney Craddick staff go along with her and must put up with Hannah's outlandish plans as they work to achieve the impossible goals that have been set for them.”
In addition to Howard, the cast also includes Edith Poor, Steen Raskopoulos, Shari Sebbens, Josh Thomson, Jonny Brugh, Susan Ling Young, Raj Labade, Lucy Schmidt, Zoe Terakes, Pallavi Sharda and Claude Jabbour.
Australia The office will debut on Prime Video on October 18.
Source: YouTube