With each year that passes, The Office is somehow discovered by new swaths of TV viewers that haven't yet discovered the show's delectable comedy. (It even influenced the MCU by way of WandaVision.) As such, there's an ever-growing population of fans who are eager to prove that one of the main characters is the actual Scranton Strangler. It's likely never going to happen, barring new evidence arriving in the form of Peacock's extended Superfan episodes, and Office star Kate Flannery is here to pour even more cold water over anyone's theories that Toby, Creed, or any other employee is doing the serial killing. Check it out in the video above!
CinemaBlend spoke with the absolutely splendid Kate Flannery to promote The Office's already successful debut on Peacock and the ongoing releases of the Superfan seasons, which add deleted scenes and alternate takes into episodes. (Check out the deleted scenes that Flannery and Andy Buckley want fans to see.) The Superfan episodes are currently only available for Season 3, which was before the Scranton Strangler entered show lore, but when I asked Flannery if there are any Office theories that she had opinions about, she said:
Well, you know, there's always that big question about who is the Scranton Strangler? And I don't know, I feel like everybody's pretty trustworthy. I don't think anybody's a murderer at Dunder Mifflin. Maybe I'm naive, but... Maybe Meredith is naive, but I don't buy it. Mm-mm. Outsider!
In Kate Flannery's eyes, no one at the Dunder Mifflin office would be devious and untrustworthy enough to be the actual Scranton Strangler. Now, the actress comes off as a total sweetheart, so that likely plays a bigger role than any supposed naivety where her lack of suspicions are concerned. Because really, I was pretty sure Creed had killed people years before the Scranton Strangler became a thing. And there were definitely some temporary Dunder Miffliners who could have fit the bill, though probably not Robert California, since he might weirdly be quite open about any potential murderous urges he harbors. John Krasinski DID wear a wig during one season, but I guess that doesn't count as Jim trying to hide his identity.
To be sure, The Office did identify the outsider George Howard Skub as the person who was arrested and convicted of being the Scranton Strangler. Toby was even part of the jury that put him in prison, though his suspicions about the case being mishandled definitely fueled the fire among fans. Especially those who believe Toby is the real killer.
While I'll remain 3% wary that Kate Flannery was trying to throw me off the scent of Meredith being the actual Scranton Strangler all along, I won't harp too long on it. Speaking of would-be killers, though, Flannery appeared on a recent episode of the Office Ladies podcast and spoke with former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey about the alternate pitch for the Season 4 premiere in which Michael hits Meredith with his car and believes the office is cursed as a result. As it turns out, the writers went on a tangent tied to the idea that Michael actually killed Meredith with his car, going so far as to reverse back over the body, and then hid the body. That didn't happen, of course, but I did ask Flannery what she thought about that plan.
A bummer! Because I, of course, had a great time on the show. And it's been the greatest job of my career, for sure, and probably will be. And the greatest job for many reasons, just because there's so much love and affection for the show. I had so much joy being a part of it. The fact that people are still caring, you know, we're like streaming royalty. It's nuts, it's nuts.
So while Kate Flannery's word isn't the last word in regards to the Scranton Strangler, it's more than likely that Meredith would have heard something from the drunken grapevine had one of her closest coworkers been a clandestine killer. Unless they just never found the bodies that Creed hid...
