Who should replace Carell on The Office?

When news broke a few weeks ago about Steve Carell leaving the US version of The Office, I was surprised to find that my initial reaction was "oh no, he's the heart and soul of the show!"

I didn't start out liking The Office US. For the most part, I think American remakes of international TV shows or films are a complete waste of time and money. Why bother remaking The Office? It was so good the first time! A perfect example would be the American remake of BBC's Life on Mars, in which Detective Sam Tyler actually ends up on the planet Mars at the end - further proving that American TV is, for the most part, as subtle as a brick. Yet, I digress.

Over time I started to enjoy The Office US, catching the occasional episode here and there, before being given a DVD of the show's fourth series. I watched that DVD set in the space of a weekend. I was hooked. Now The Office US is almost appointment viewing, when it's on.

The question is: how will it go without Steve Carell? Who can replace him?

In the space of two days last week, Stuff ran stories with the details of potential replacements. The first story appeared last Wednesday and explained that our very own Rhys Darby was being lined up to take over from Carell, but faced some stiff competition from Danny McBride (Eastbound and Down). The second story explained that Portia De Rossi (Arrested Development) was being lined up, and also mentioned that Ricky Gervais (the original Office) was in the running.

If you ask me, Darby and Gervais wouldn't work out. Darby has already played a similar part on Flight of the Conchords, so taking a job on The Office US would be an admission that he is something of a one-trick pony The idea of him playing a replica of Murray while doing a role call ("Jim? Pam? Dwight?") is too depressing to bear thinking about.

Similarly, Ricky Gervais would absolutely take the job - mostly because he would seemingly do anything to achieve fame in the US - but he would have to play David Brent, right? It would just be weird if he didn't. Plus, I feel like his appearance on The Office US would taint the legacy of the original BBC series.

McBride would be an intriguing choice, though he seems too "everyman" to pull off the role - the characters he has played in the past makes it seem like he'd be more suited to working in a factory than an office. That makes De Rossi the most logical of the four actors mentioned.

Of course, all this debate in my head got me thinking: who would I choose to take over from Steve Carell?

Ideally the person would be someone who is well-known but completely different, and incredibly funny. I don't want a Carell impersonator coming in and trying to be just like Carell was. I also don't want someone who was funnier 10 years ago, like Jim Carrey. That would be a disaster.

Also, I don't think they should promote from within. Sure, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) or Jim (John Krasinski) could do the job, but I really think they need a bigger-name star to offset the loss of Carell.

The first name that popped to mind was Paul Rudd. Rudd's star has been on the rise for the last couple of years, with roles in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Role Models and I Love You, Man proving his comedy chops. On the down side, I get the sense that Rudd would try to emulate Carell's performance, so there would be very few differences between the characters they play.

The next name that came to mind, as I tried to pick someone completely outside the box, was Sharlto Copley. The star of District 9 and The A Team definitely has some comedy skills (he was the funniest thing about The A Team ... aside from Liam Neeson's ridiculous "I love it when a plan comes together!" catchphrase), and I have no doubt he could pull off the part. Plus, he would give the writers the option of having the company taken over by a South African outfit in an early-season story arc. After deliberation, I don't like this idea though: it might distract him from the inevitable District 9 sequel.

I went back to the news story about Portia De Rossi, and was starting to think that she might be the right choice after all, when suddenly I thought about her Arrested Development co-star, Mr Jason Bateman.

Bateman has all the characteristics you'd want: he definitely suits the office job, he's got the comedy chops but is different enough from Steve Carell that he would make a great replacement, plus The Office US writers would suddenly have a host of AD-related jokes at their disposal. Imagine Dwight panicking and screaming that the office is going to get closed down when he first meets Bateman on-screen! On the downside, Bateman's new character might be too similar to Michael Bluth.

There are plenty of options available to the producers of The Office US - its a popular show, which means people will want to work on it. Not to mention that Carell is still around for another year. Who knows who might become available before then?!

So here is your challenge for the weekend, folks: Who do you think would make the best replacement for Steve Carell on The Office US? Should they hire someone new? Should they just promote someone like Dwight or Jim? Post your ideas below.

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