James Spader Joins “The Office” Staff

After a brief cameo appearance in last season’s final episode of The Office, NBC is announcing that James Spader will join the series playing Robert California, the new CEO of Dunder-Mifflin’s parent company.

Spader’s character is an “uber-salesman that has a power to convince and manipulate, like a high-class weirdo Jedi warrior,” executive producer (and series actor) Paul Lieberstein said in a statement.

Initially, Spader’s character appeared to be vying for the role of manager, which Michael Scott (actor Steve Carell) vacated at the end of last season. Apparently - Spader’s character got the manager job and did so well over the summer that he was promoted hours later, and made CEO within days. If only life were that easy!

There is still no word on who will replace Michael Scott (Carell.) No doubt it will be an active storyline for many episodes to come.