That rumored Office spin-off might get a big infusion of Nathan For You energy

We’ve been hearing rumors for a few months now, at various levels of speculative fervor, about Greg Daniels’ ongoing efforts to get some kind of reboot or revival of his classic NBC sitcom The Office off the ground—even if we half-suspect many of these stories exist simply to give NBCUniversal executives something to obsessively pray for in dark and dismal times. Now, though, we’ve heard some fascinating, and slightly more concrete, information about Daniels’ efforts—including the fact that he’s brought Nathan For You co-creator Michael Koman in to serve as a potential co-creator on the new series.

This is per Deadline, which reports that Daniels’ “mockumentary exploratory project,” which is being described as existing “in the Office universe,” will, if it gets a greenlight, have Koman at the helm as a co-creator alongside Daniels. The writer and producer (who’s married to Office star Ellie Kemper, by the by) was a long-time Late Night With Conan O’Brien staffer before serving as head writer on Comedy Central’s Important Things With Demetri Martin, where he first met and worked with Nathan Fielder. After Koman’s Adult Swim show Eagleheart ended, he and Fielder teamed back up, creating Nathan For You’s bizarre blend of prank show, social experiment, and aggressive cringe comedy in the process.

All of which is an interesting energy to be bringing to the world of the Office, which has always operated on the fringe of cringe, while only falling into the uncomfortable abyss every once in a while. (Looking at you, “Scott’s Tots.”) Koman’s wide-ranging resumé shows he can handle a large variety of tones, but it’ll still be interesting to see some of that more extreme Nathan For You energy infest whatever corporate world this hypothetical spin-off ultimately settles into. (The series is reportedly still only in development at Universal Television, FYI.)