NBC’s ‘The Office’ season 9: Steve Carell on reason for not returning for finale

We imagine the past few weeks have not been particularly easy for Steve Carell when it comes to dealing with the fans. After all, not everyone has taken altogether well to his decision to not return to “The Office” for at least one more episode as Michael Scott; but then again, it does seem as though his heart is in the right place when it comes to the reason for the move.

Carell has been present this week at the Sundance Film Festival, and of course he was asked by one reporter in “Access Hollywood” about the decision that he made to stay clear of Scranton despite producer interest in seeing Michael make one final visit to please longtime fans of the show. So why did he say no? First things first, he denied that it was because he was too busy to take part in the show:

“It’s not that at all. I just didn’t think that it was right for the character, because [he] had an arc in the story and sort of grew past the documentary … I’m really good friends with everyone on the cast and with Greg Daniels, and I certainly want to go back to say ‘hi’ to everybody before it all ends. But in terms of the character, it didn’t make sense.”

Carell is right that “Goodbye, Michael” is the perfect way to say goodbye to his character, and what he is saying here makes total sense. When you remember just how much Michael Scott loved the office and how hard it was for him to leave, being back in that environment or the documentary would be regressing for him at a time when he should be moving forward with Holly. With this being said, though, it would be nice to at least hear from another character that he has in fact gotten everything that he wanted out of his life with Amy Ryan’s character in Colorado.

If you want to read some more news about what you can expect see on the remainder of “The Office” this season, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: NBC