Steve Carell has been saying for over a year now that he doesn’t have an interest in returning to The Office for the finale because he’s happy with how he left his character. Showrunner/creator Greg Daniels said months ago that Carell wouldn’t be back, but reports surfaced a couple weeks ago that the show’s “producers mounted an 11th hour effort … to coax Carell into making a cameo.â€Â The mystery continued this week as Mindy Kaling refused to answer David Letterman’s question about whether or not Carell would return.
Greg Daniels put these rumors to rest once and for all today in a conference call to reporters, explaining, “I think Steve felt, and I agree, that the ‘Goodbye, Michael’ episode was his goodbye and he didn’t want to overshadow the ending that all the other characters deserved.†So, there you have it. No surprise Michael Scott appearance in the Office finale – unless Daniels is just trying to throw us off his tracks to keep it a surprise.