Steve Carell won’t be in new “The Office” series: 'I will be watching but I will not be showing up'

"I’m excited about it, it sounds like a great conceit," Carell said.

Peacock’s The Office follow-up has piqued Steve Carell’s curiosity — but he won’t be involved in the show in any capacity.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin star discussed the upcoming TV show at the premiere of his new film IF. "I will be watching but I will not be showing up. It’s just a new thing and there’s really no reason for my character [Michael Scott] to show up in something like that," Carell told The Hollywood Reporter. "But I’m excited about it, it sounds like a great conceit. I love the idea — I guess it’s set in a family newspaper company, and I worked with Domhnall Gleeson, who is one of the leads. I did The Patient with him and he’s an excellent actor and a super nice guy so I think it’ll be great."

The new series was officially announced last week. The logline for the new series reads, “The documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch is in search of a new subject when they discover a dying historic Midwestern newspaper and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters.”

The series is set to begin production in July, and will be overseen by Greg Daniels, who created the U.S. iteration of The Office, as well as Nathan For You’s Michael Koman. Gleeson (Star Wars, Ex Machina, About Time) and Sabrina Impacciatore (The White Lotus) will be among the new office’s employees.

Related: Steve Carell and John Krasinski have an Office reunion in new IF promo

IF, directed by fellow Office alum John Krasinski, sees Carell lend his voice to Blue, an enormous purple imaginary friend named Blue. Carell also told THR about working with his former costar as a director. "He directed some episodes of The Office so I was familiar with him as a director and he’s a great director — he’s very thorough, he’s smart and he knows how to work with actors because he is one," Carell said. "It was just a joy from beginning to end and I jumped at the chance to work with him again, partly just to be with him. He’s a good friend and I hadn’t seem him in a while so it was nice to catch up."

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Krasinski was similarly effusive about working with Carell. "Steve's one of the most talented people on the planet," Krasinski told Entertainment Weekly in December. "So whether I had ever worked with him before or not, I would've been gunning for him because I just had his voice in my head when I was writing Blue."

Related: Rainn Wilson reunites with ‘big-hearted brother’ and The Office costar John Krasinski

IF also stars Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, Louis Gossett Jr., Maya Rudolph, Bradley Cooper, Amy Schumer, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Blake Lively, Awkwafina, Richard Jenkins, Krasinski, and his wife Emily Blunt. The film hits theaters May 17.

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