The Office Australia reveals premiere date and first-look image of Felicity Ward as the cringe comedy lead

The Australian version of Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais’s cringe comedy The Office will premiere on October 18 on Prime Video.

The series released its first-look image, featuring comedian Felicity Ward as Hannah Howard, the managing director of the branch of a packaging company called Flinley Craddick.

She’s the ruler of her little domain, which is challenged when Hannah is told by her head office that the branch will be shut down and everyone is to work from home. She’s desperate to keep her “work family” together so embarks on a series of out-there schemes.

Ward is joined by an ensemble cast that includes Steen Raskopoulos, Shari Sebbens, Pallavi Sharda, Josh Thomson, Edith Poor, Lucy Schmidt, Claude Jabbour, Jonny Brugh, Raj Labade and Susan Ling Young. Guest stars include Susie Youssef and Justin Rosniak.

All eight episodes will be available on the same day. Ward revealed the premiere date last night on Logies red carpet. The Australian version of The Office was announced more than a year ago and went into production in Sydney not long after.

The local version is co-produced by BBC Studios Australia and New Zealand, Bunya Productions and Amazon MGM Studios. The executive producers are Julie De Fina and Jackie van Beek.

The character of Hannah will be the first time a woman has been the lead in a franchise that has spawned 13 international versions including Sweden, Canada, Poland, India, Israel, Czechia and Saudi Arabia.

The best-known version outside of the original British series which ran from 2001 to 2003 was, of course, the American series.

The US version spanned nine seasons, totalling 201 episodes. It cemented the career of Steve Carell and launched others including John Krasinski, Ed Helms, Rainn Wilson, B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, Rashida Jones, Jenna Fischer and Ellie Kemper.

Behind the scenes, it propelled the writing careers of Kaling, Novak, Carrie Kemper (Beef, Silicon Valley), the team of Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (Good Boys, Jury Duty), and Michael Schur (The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine).

Carell left the show at the end of the seventh season in 2011 and the series struggled to coalesce around a new leading character, cycling through a series of prominent guest stars including Will Ferrell and James Spader.

The Office US tried to capitalise on Helms’ supercharged career after the success of The Hangover movies but ultimately leaned back on the power of its remaining ensemble cast. Carell returned for a special cameo during the show’s series finale in 2013.

The American show, developed by Greg Daniels (King of the Hill, Upload, Parks and Recreation), was arguably more popular than Gervais and Merchant’s original, and was, for a time, the most watched title on streaming platforms in the US.

In 2019, NBC Universal struck a deal to buy the American streaming rights for $US500 million.

The Office US attempted to spin off Wilson’s Dwight Schrute character into his own show while the series was still being broadcast, shooting a pilot that was ultimately reworked and folded into the final season when the network opted to not proceed.

Since the series’ end, fans have clamoured for a revival or reboot. Instead, a spin-off show was greenlit earlier this year with Daniels producing and actors Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina, Peter Rabbit) and Sabrina Impacciatore attached to star.

The as-yet-untitled show will exist in the same narrative universe as The Office US, with the documentary crew that was embedded within Dunder Mifflin now following the story of a “dying, historic midwestern newspaper and publisher”.