James Spader Joins The Office As New Boss

Posted on Wed Jul 6th, 2011 1:00pm PDT By X17 Staff

Well, new top boss anyway.

Speculation has been circling NBC's The Office for months as to who will replace Michael Scott (Steve Carrell's character) as boss of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch since Carrell has officially left the series -- this season was his last.

Some official news has finally surfaced. James Spader, who guest starred on the show this season, will become an official recurring character; he'll play the CEO of Sabre, Dunder Mifflin's parent company.

Spader is a multi-Emmy winner; he starred on Boston Legal and The Practice.

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His character on The Office, Robert California, is described as an "uber-salesman that has a power to convince and manipulate, like a high-class weirdo Jedi warrior."

Love it -- especially the name "California"!

Spader will reportedly make $100-200,000 per episode for the show. Not bad!

As for who is still in the running to replace Michael Scott, see the names after the jump!

After a slew of possible replacements came in the form of guest stars all season on The Office -- including Will Ferrell, Ricky Gervais and Jim Carrey -- Dunder Mifflin apparently might still promote from within.

Rainn Wilson, Ed Helms and John Krasinski's characters -- Dwight, Andy and Jim, respectively -- all reportedly could take over Michael Scott's job.

For a while, actor Will Arnett was the frontrunner to take over the position as a new character, but he has signed on for another new fall show with NBC, Up All Night, which will co-star Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph.