Some may be disappointed by this news, while others will likely be relieved. It looks like NBC has decided not to move forward with the Office spin-off, The Farm. Had it gone to series, the spin-off would have followed Dunder Mifflin's Dwight Schrute and his family on the Schrute beet farm.
Spinoff naysayers may have considered this project a bad idea from the start, however, this news still comes a bit sooner than expected. We learned back in January that a potential spinoff project for Rainn Wilson's Office character Dwight was in the works, and later, that the comedy was expected to be set up as a "backdoor pilot," meaning that a special episode of The Office would air, introducing us to the characters in Dwight's family that would be featured in the potential series. So it seemed likely that we wouldn't hear official word on NBC's decision over whether or not to move forward with the project until that episode of The Office aired.
Those keeping up with The Office know that there hasn't been any Schrute Farm focused episode during Season 9 so far, however, (via THR), Rainn Wilson Tweeted confirmation today that NBC passed on moving forward with The Farm.
While Season 9 of The Office may be the end of the road for Dwight Schrute, I highly doubt it'll be the last we see of Rainn Wilson. At the very least, this should free him up to pursue other roles. I wanted to be optimistic about the Farm, but if NBC is passing on it, there's a good chance there's good reason (especially considering they didn't wait until after the backdoor pilot aired). This may just be more optimism speaking but better there be no Dwight spinoff than one that's not worthy of the quirky character at his best.
