The Office’s millions-strong fandom has much to celebrate this year, with Greg Daniels’ upcoming newspaper-set spinoff hitting the 2025 TV schedule in September. (An event momentous enough for Chili’s to resurrect its Scranton location.) Given the setting changes, viewers likely won’t get major updates on familiar characters, but former star Ellie Kemper herself shared her current thoughts about Dunder-Mifflin’s on-again, off-again coupling of Erin and Andy, and I’m firmly inclined to side with her on this one.
Kemper shared some candid thoughts in the past about not being a huge fan of Erin and Andy as a couple, and when asked to hypothesize about their current status in an interview with People, the actress initially voiced an olive branch for Ed Helms’ kooky character before largely backtracking in favor of Erin’s happiness. Here’s how she put it:
I don't know that they're the perfect pair, but they would make it work. Look, in my tone, you can tell that I sound skeptical of their success as a couple, so maybe I don't. I feel like Erin is on — not to say that Andy was a bad pick — but she's on to better and brighter.
For the briefest of seconds, any and all Erin/Andy shippers were in grasping distance of a victory that remained elusive as The Office closed out with its ninth season. And I suppose if anyone’s electricity cut out in the middle of reading that quote, that person could very well go forward in life with the idea that Kemper thinks Erin and Andy would find a way to permanently patch things up.
But such is not the case, and I’m not exactly mad about it. Despite Erin and Andy easily being two of the best characters from The Office, judged as separate entities, I wasn’t ever really a huge fan of their romantic entanglements, largely due to Andy’s relationship behavior somehow being more cartoonish than Jim’s and Dwight’s put together. Sure, he often had others’ best interests in mind, but he kind of sucked at showcasing them.
Meanwhile, Erin often represented youthful innocence, and I like to imagine that she ended up with her most ideal significant other after the show wrapped, perhaps someone who watched the in-universe documentary and fell head over heels for her.
As far as Erin’s current whereabouts, Ellie Kemper surmised that Erin probably put Dunder-Mifflin in her rear-view mirror, and is hopefully enjoying the life of an employee who has moved up in the ranks. As she put it:
I think she's a hard worker, but I also think she has values, or balance. That's what she values, balance. So I feel like she probably has moved on to a more senior position. I'm not sure whether it's at a paper company or in a different field, but I also think she has a family and friends and balances it all. That's my wish for her.
How awesome would it be, though, if the new Office spinoff The Paper does actually feature a cameo or two from the U.S. mothership? (Not that I’d balk at seeing Ricky Gervais’ David Brent or someone else from the OG UK comedy popping up.) I don’t know that updating fans on Erin and Andy’s status would be the main concern, but it definitely would be if Ed Helms is the one making the cameo.
Fans can revisit any relationship foible they want throughout The Office’s nine seasons with a Peacock subscription while awaiting an exact premiere date for The Paper on NBC.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
