Actress Dakota Johnson made a sometimes overlooked appearance in The Office’s penultimate episode before going on to become a big-time movie star.
The Office season 9’s last episode had a far bigger cast than normal because the show had to bid adieu to its cherished original cast members and bring in a fresh batch of Dunder Mifflin workers to take their places.
In addition to Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, and Steve Carell’s cameo as Michael Scott, Dakota Johnson had a brief appearance in The Office’s conclusion as a character who almost completely altered her career path.
Jack Black, Cloris Leachman, and Jessica Alba’s cameos in season 5 were deftly inserted as part of a fictional movie rather than engaging with the characters since The Office famously had a rule regarding its cameos: they refused to engage in stunt casting.
But later on in the show, prominent characters were portrayed by actors like Kathy Bates, Idris Elba, James Spader, Stephen Colbert, and even Will Ferrell.
Even though this was a product of The Office’s desire for big personalities after Steve Carell left after season 7, later seasons saw cameos by upcoming performers like Dakota Johnson.
Dakota Johnson’s The Office Role
In the season finale of The Office, Dakota Johnson plays Dakota, a fitting continuation of the show’s practice of giving many of the actors’ true names to their characters.
In the chronology, Dakota becomes a new accountant at Dunder Mifflin after the documentary airs since the firm had to replace a large number of resigned or fired Scranton branch employees.
Specifically, Dwight fired Kevin Malone, and Dakota Johnson’s character from The Office took his place. Her appearance was probably meant to create contrast with the worker who had previously held her position.
But Dakota Johnson only makes two cameos in the season finale of The Office; in the first, she questions Oscar about odd markings on Kevin’s old files, and in the second, she witnesses Clark making up with her at the PBS afterparty.
It makes sense that Johnson’s brief appearance is frequently overlooked given the episode’s focus on The Office’s unique character endings and its scant screen time. Furthermore, when Dakota Johnson made an appearance on The Office, it was two years before to her breakthrough performance in Fifty Shades of Grey, so she wasn’t as well-known as she is now.
A decade ago, Dakota Johnson was still relatively unknown, despite being the face of the successful Fifty Shades franchise and playing a superhero in Madame Web. Prior to her appearance on The Office, Johnson had small roles in 21 Jump Street, The Social Network, and The Five-Year Engagement.
Her TV show Ben and Kate was canceled just before her brief appearance. As a result, The Office remained a rather important position for Johnson and, had the original, genuine intentions for her character been realized, may have altered the trajectory of her career.
Johnson disclosed in a 2021 interview that the real purpose of her cameo was to set up a potential spinoff of The Office that would have followed her and a new generation of Dunder Mifflin employees.
The groundwork for a future series was evident in the subtle moments of The Office’s Dunder Mifflin finale, which showed a relative replacement of the senior staff with a younger crowd.
