The Office Star Leslie David Baker Returning Crowdfunded Money For Delayed Stanley Spin-Off Series

The U.S. remake of "The Office" is one of the most popular television shows ever — you can basically watch the whole series via memes/gifs. It's surprising, then, that 10 years on from the finale, there hasn't been a spin-off. Since the original show's 201 episodes remain absurdly popular on streaming, perhaps NBC doesn't see a need for more when the fans are satisfied with rewatching ad infinitum. However, Leslie David Baker (who played Stanley Hudson, a grumpy and sardonic salesman for the Dunder Mifflin paper company) tried to get a spin-off made about his character, and he turned to those fans to make it happen.

In 2020, Baker and his business partner Sardar Khan started a Kickstarter for "Uncle Stan." The premise would be that Stanley, now retired from Dunder Mifflin and living in Florida, gets a call from his nephew Lucky, who runs a motorcycle/flower shop. If that sounds like an odd business to you, you're not alone; the shop is failing, so "Uncle Stan" needs to fly out to LA to help his nephew keep it afloat. The project's donation goal was $300,000, listed as the funds needed to film a pilot episode.

Unfortunately for those who stan Stanley, Baker announced via Instagram this week that "Uncle Stan" has been suspended and donations will be refunded.

In a letter addressed from Baker and Khan, they apologized for delays in updates about "Uncle Stan." They claim the project fell behind, first due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now because of the ongoing WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes (they expressed solidarity with the strikers, saying, "[we] will do our part in supporting WGA and SAG during these times). As a result of these difficulties, they have decided to refund their Kickstarter backers — though, as a "token of appreciation," backer rewards will still be fulfilled. Those whose rewards were already fulfilled will be refunded as well.

The "Uncle Stan" Kickstarter page states that the project raised a total of $336,450.53 from 1640 backers. However, the refunds will total only $110,629.81. Baker and Khan addressed this discrepancy:

"[$336,450.53 was] not the actual final amount we received. A large portion of backers' pledges were lowered, or completely dropped and never collected once the campaign was completed. The final amount that we received from Kickstarter was exactly: $110,629.81. The funds were never used for any purposes other than reward fulfillment and backer refunds, and have otherwise remained accounted for and untouched in the account."

Some have characterized the "Uncle Stan" project as a scam. Reasons cited include the long gap between updates about the project, Baker and Khan launching cryptocurrency "Stanley's Nickels" in 2021, and the simple fact that they don't own the rights to the Stanley Hudson character: NBC does. Baker and Khan's assertions about their pledges have not yet been independently verified, and their decision to refund only a third of their listed donations means allegations of dishonesty will likely continue.

While "Uncle Stan" will assuredly never be made, "The Office" fans who donated can enjoy their refunds and watch the show itself again to get their Stanley fix.