Well this is huge. For years, Steve Carell has been asked about returning for some sort of The Office reunion or reboot series, and he’s remained steadfastly opposed to reprising his iconic role of Michael Scott. But now we may have something even better. Netflix announced today that Carell and The Office creator/showrunner Greg Daniels have created a new comedy series called Space Force, in which Carell will star.

The news was announced with a trailer, that reveals the premise as follows:

On June 18, 2018 the Federal Government announced the creation of a 6th major division of the United States Armed Forces.

 

The goal of the new branch is “to defend satellites from attack” and “peform other space-related tasks.”

 

Or something.

 

This is the story of the men and women who have to figure it out.

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Image via NBC

That is a tremendously rich premise for a comedy series, especially from the guy who created and steered one of the best and most iconic workplace comedies of all time. Indeed, Daniels created the U.S. version of The Office and showran the series for its first four seasons, after which he tamed up with The Office writer Michael Schur to create Parks and Recreation. Schur served as showrunner on Parks and Rec, and Daniels returned to The Office full time for the series’ final season to help bring it all home.

Since that time, however, we haven’t seen much new from Daniels. Right after The Office he developed a comedy pilot called Friday Night Dinner that wasn’t picked up by NBC, and he’s an executive producer on the TBS series People of Earth. This new Netflix series Space Force will be his first major new series on air since The Office.

As for Carell, he recently signed on to return to television for an untitled Apple series that takes place at a morning show, which stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. That’s currently filming, so one imagines once he completes that first season, he’ll switch gears and get to work bringing Space Force to fruition.

I’m hopeful and optimistic here, and I’ll be curious to see which writers are working on this new series. That premise is comedy gold, and Carell created one of the most iconic characters in television history alongside Daniels on The Office. So there’s plenty of reason to be excited.

Check out the Space Force trailer below. Netflix has not announced a release date just yet.

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