Breaking news: Dwight Schrute is dead. (We'd like to think he went peacefully in his sleep, on a bed of beets with Angela by his side.)
Rainn Wilson is saying goodbye to his iconic character from The Office, trading in his signature glasses for a cigar on his new Fox series Backstrom, premiering tonight. Don't worry, the bad attitude and no-filter dialogue is still there, just with a whole lot of bad habits, too!
But Wilson almost didn't even take on the role of Backstrom, the arrogant, obnoxious and totally brilliant detective, as it was presented to him "on the second to last day of The Office," he tells E! News. Which meant taking on another TV role after spending a decade in Dwight's shoes.
"I got a call from my agents...and they were like, we have a TV script for you.' And they were like, ‘Don't yell at us, don't fire us!'" Wilson explains. "Because I was like, ‘What? Are you crazy?! I just did 200 episodes of a show.'
So what changed his mind? Bones' creator Hart Hanson's script!
"I was hooked. It was such an interesting, complex, difficult, funny, dark and weird character," Wilson says. "I was like, characters like this, they just don't come around very often. I couldn't let it go."
And we think viewers will agree about Backstrom, who manages to offend every single person at some point in the premiere, yet you still find yourself rooting for him anyway. Such is the power of Wilson's likability, y'all!
"Watching Rainn bring Backstrom to life is really incredible," co-star Kris Polaha, who plays Backstrom's forensics liaison whom he can't stand, gushes.
And Polaha tells E! News what it was like on the set of the pilot, shot back in 2013, revealing he watched Wilson commit a fictional-yet-symbolic murder.
"It was like an act of murder. He literally killed Dwight!" Polaha says. "I think as an actor, he knew the task at hand was, 'People are going to expect Dwight, and they're going to think I'm a one-trick pony and let me prove them wrong.' And he's done it, in my opinion, in spades with Backstrom because this guy is from vocal qualities to body stance, like where his energy comes from and who this guy is...it's a treat as an actor to work with him."
You can watch Wilson kill Dwight for yourself when Backstrom premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on Fox.
And watch the rest of our interview with Wilson above to hear him describe one of the weirdest and coolest relationships you'll see on TV this year!