Dwight Replaced Erin with a Robot In The Office’s Fan-Made ‘Season 10’

After the beloved NBC sitcom The Office ended following its ninth season, obsessed fans have spent hours hoping for bonus content and hidden deleted scenes. A brilliant fan-made comic titled “Return of The Office” not only acts as a “10th season” for the show, but offers hilarious insight into what may have happened to Dunder Mifflin after The Office ended.

Originally intended to be a 10-issue “sequel” series to The Office, “Return of The Office” won official praise from the actor behind Dwight Schrute, Rainn Wilson, when it was first announced in 2018. As of now it has remained a single issue comic featuring Dwight, Meredith, Angela, and a slew of other Dunder Mifflin employees as they… fight zombies?! Yes, it turns out that “Return of The Office” ends up becoming something of an amalgam of The Office and The Walking Dead, but before that it establishes some hilarious updates for everyone’s favorite paper company employees.

“Return of The Office” is written and created by the same person behind the unofficial recreation of “The Adventures of Jimmy Halpert,” Nikki Saldaña, and is faithfully illustrated by Petterson Oliveira, who also goes by Nostrettep Art and is a part of DC Comic’s Milestone Initiative program. The hilarious comic, whose preview pages can be seen below and can be purchased from DunderMifflinPaper.com, starts with the documentary crew behind The Office returning to Dunder Mifflin, where the reader already sees changes to the Scranton Business Park, such as Dwight’s apparent new side business “Schrute Ammo Depot.” As the documentary crew enters the office, presumably to film a “where are they now” follow-up, they are immediately greeted by a computer screen at the receptionist’s table, with no Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) in sight. Fans might remember that the last viewers saw of Erin she had broken up with Andy, begun dating Pete, and was reunited with her long-lost parents at The Office reunion special, but Dwight establishes that, “Although I have been hesitant about trusting machines in the past, Erin’s departure during the COVID pandemic last year left me no choice.”

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Of course, Dwight is referring to his long time fear of machine intelligence, seen throughout The Office like when he begs Michael to not use the GPS in his car, to his battle against the (fake) Dunder Mifflin Infinity AI from Season 4’s “Launch Party.” Thankfully though, it seems like Dwight has finally learned to trust some forms of advancing technology, since he has fully replaced Erin with a computer monitor, camera, and speaker, so that he can greet any walk-in guest himself. This is one of the Dwight-est things he could have done at the office.

The Season 10 comic also establishes that Dwight outsourced the accounting department to India, and that he oversees the daily operations of the warehouse himself, finally being allowed to fully control every aspect of Dunder Mifflin like he has always craved. It is also interesting that “Return of The Office” establishes that, at least in this fan-made continuity, the COVID pandemic occurred in the world of The Office, which would have been a truly fascinating world event to see played out in a hilarious and often-inappropriate workplace like Dunder Mifflin. Dwight also makes reference to the fact that he completely cut the Customer Service department, the infamous home of Mindy Kaling’s iconic character Kelly Kapoor, instead opting to have all complaints sent directly to him, so he can “…root out all the weak links in [his] regime.”

The Office is one of the most beloved, streamed, and re-watched sitcoms of all time, and while the fan-made comic “Return to The Office” may not be official (and does quickly turn into a “Dwight Vs. The Zombie Apocalypse” story), incredible art and spot-on choices like Dwight replacing Erin with a “robotic” receptionist will make any fan enjoy this comic.

Source: DunderMifflinPaper.com, Rainn Wilson