Update: Our reviewer found that Steve Carell and Greg Daniels’ new Netflix series Space Force manages to mine plenty of comedy from the strange and occasionally terrifying place where America currently finds itself. Read the full Space Force review for more.
It’s been a while, but Steve Carell is headed back to the small screen in a big way. Not only is The Office veteran set to play a role in Apple’s TV adaptation of Brian Stelter’s Top of the Morning, but he’ll also star in the Netflix comedy Space Force, which was inspired by President Donald Trump’s real-life plans to take the U.S. military to the stars.
Carell co-created the series alongside The Office head honcho Greg Daniels, who will board Space Force as showrunner and executive producer. Netflix describes Space Force as a “workplace comedy centered around the people tasked with creating a sixth branch of the armed services,” so despite the far-out premise, both Daniels and Carell should be on familiar ground.
Space Force was inspired by the news that the Trump administration plans to establish a sixth branch of the military called, well, Space Force. The new organization will be charged with protecting American interests in space and foiling the efforts of countries like Russia and China to develop space-based weapons.
A brief Space Force teaser posted on social media pokes fun at the Trump administration’s plans for military expansion, quoting directives to “defend satellites from attack” and “perform other space-related tasks,” before cheekily adding, “or something.”
Netflix ordered Space Force directly to series, although the final number of episodes the show will receive depends on how the writing process unfolds. Like the real Space Force, the Netflix comedy won’t come cheap. Carell will receive over $1 million per episode to appear on the series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Carrel has not been a regular on television since leaving The Office in 2011, although he has been a fixture at cinemas ever since. The actor can currently be seen in Beautiful Boy, Welcome to Marwen, and Vice, another political send-up.
Netflix hasn’t given Space Force an official release date, but the streaming network will have to move fast if it wants to beat the real thing. In August 2018, Vice President Mike Pence revealed that the White House wants to get its Space Force up and running as early as 2020.
