As any fan of The Office knows, Jim pulled some epic pranks on his oddball desk mate Dwight over the years, all in the name of trying to keep himself entertained while at work. Now we've gotten word that one amazing prank almost made it into the finale. David Rogers, former editor for The Office, has revealed just what Jim's last, massive, prank would have been on Dwight, and why we never got to see it in the final episode of the series.
The finale came in really, really long. There was a cold open that is the ultimate prank where, Jim pranks Dwight, and he does the ultimate prank: he makes Dwight think that he's in The Matrix. And people asked us, like, 'Oh, did you, you know, you ran out of, you know, it was just too long, you guys didn't shoot it, it, it's not in the episode, you didn't put it on the deleted scenes.' We shot it...I cut it.
Um, what? This sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Like the absolute best of the best when it comes to Jim-vs-Dwight pranks on The Office. I mean, how can you get any better than Jim managing to convince Dwight that he's in The Matrix? And, not the movie The Matrix, but the actual Matrix? Man, I love this so much, and really wish we could have seen it. But, as David Rogers told Michael Clouse on Bios, the cold open was never to see the light of day. As could be expected when a series is trying to wrap up nine seasons worth of comedic goodness in just under an hour, there was a lot of footage to choose from when it came time to put the episode together so it could air, and Jim's Matrix shenanigans simply had to be cut for time.
In case you don't recall, the finale of The Office focused largely on the group reuniting a year after the documentary on the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin has aired. The crew is filming more footage for the bonus features of the DVD and they've set up a panel so that fans can ask them questions. But, more importantly, weirdo lovebirds Dwight and Angela are also getting married in the episode, with Jim serving as best man and, therefore, being put in charge of organizing a series of "guten pranken" (good surprises) for Dwight during his bachelor party. Wow, it really is a shame that the opening prank couldn't have been left in. It really would have fit so well.
In case you're wondering if we might see the amazing Matrix prank that was filmed with such love and care at some point, well, David Rogers defers the power of that decision to someone with a bit more clout than him:
That's all up to Greg Daniels, but, uh, maybe the 10 year anniversary, the 20 year anniversary? We'll see.
So, it looks like we could have a while to wait until this particular prank is revealed to fans. But, we want it, right? You hear that, Greg Daniels? Make it happen, dude! While we wait for that possible anniversary edition of The Office to hit stores, be sure to check out our summer premiere schedule and Netflix premiere guide to see what you can catch on the small screen in the coming weeks.
