Peacock, the new streaming service from NBCUniversal, knew millions of people who love “The Office” would have a hard time with the show moving off of Netflix at the start of 2021. As a reward for those fans who just can’t binge-watch enough episodes of that classic TV series, Peacock wanted to give a little New Year’s gift to everyone.
Many fans of “The Office” know just about every line from every episode by this point. So, Peacock did something Netflix was never able to and dug deep into the show’s unused material to find some buried treasure to share as the series debuted on its new streaming home.
Fans got a look at a deleted cold-open scene from “The Office” finale that involved what can only be described as one of Jim Halpert’s most elaborate pranks against Dwight Shrute.
Jim and Dwight’s relationship over the nine seasons of “The Office” evolved from a general loathing of one another to a unique friendship. But, along the way, Jim still loved to get under his longtime co-worker’s skin with practical jokes. Memorable ones include re-creating Dwight’s desk with Christmas wrapping paper and hiring an actor to pretend Jim was someone else all along.
But this never-before-seen prank went even deeper. Jim and Pam worked together to try to convince Dwight he is part of the sci-fi classic “The Matrix,” which is a movie Dwight happens to love.
ð¨ This is not a drill. ð¨ Presenting a never-before-seen cold open from #TheOffice!
Watch #TheOfficeonPeacock for more exclusive content: https://t.co/83j9pd3Wke pic.twitter.com/NgE1GYsJzm
— Peacock (@peacockTV) January 1, 2021
The elaborate prank involves a cast of dozens — including a black cat trained by Pam — led by security guard Hank (played by the late actor Hugh Dane) who took on the role of Dorpheus, brother of Morpheus from the film series.
After calling Dwight down to the warehouse to reveal his “true” identity, Hank gives him a life-changing choice. Just as in the original movie, Dwight could swallow either a red pill or a blue pill and choose if he wanted to stay in the Matrix, blissfully unaware of the true nature of the world, or join Dorpheus’ underground army to “wage war for the freedom of all humankind.”
That’s when things take a surprising and heartfelt turn. You can watch the full deleted scene below, from Peacock’s YouTube page.
It also looks like Peacock plans to release more never-before-seen clips for fans looking for fresh content from “The Office.” We’ll have to stay tuned to find out what else the new streaming service has up its sleeve
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
