Netflix’s SPACE FORCE Looks Like THE OFFICE: NASA EDITION

All the way back in March of 2018, Donald Trump popped up at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, CA, where he regaled the audience with his thoughts, such as they were, regarding the creation of a United States Space Force, an elite group of astronaut soldiers who might be brought together to protect Americans - and, indeed, the entire world! - from threats originating outside of our planet's atmosphere.

Said the President:

"I was saying it the other day—’cause we’re doing a tremendous amount of work in space—I said, maybe we need a new force. We’ll call it the space force. And I was not really serious. And then I said, what a great idea. Maybe we’ll have to do that. That could happen. That could be the big, breaking story.”

Of course, the concept of a "Space Force" wasn't Trump's idea - the United States has been kicking the concept around for years (indeed, the House of Representatives had passed legislation directing the Defense Department to create such a thing nearly a year prior), but the whole situation certainly sounded like another of the president's hilariously ill-considered ideas (see also: the time the president tried to buy Greenland, the time the president suggested putting UV light "inside the bodies" to treat COVID-19, the president's bold decision to stare directly into a solar eclipse without wearing protective lenses). For the great number of people who enjoy mocking the president, the "Space Force" situation was a gold mine.

It was only a matter of time before that gold mine yielded a TV show.

This, as you can see, is the first trailer for Netflix's SPACE FORCE, which hits the streaming service later this month. Co-created by Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, this trailer is somewhat reminiscent of THE OFFICE, though its scope is obviously much larger and its cast more sprawling (that cast, by the way, is also dotted with instantly recognizable names: in addition to Carell, you've got John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Lisa Kudrow and more). It looks like it could be pretty funny, and lord knows it's good to see Carell in funny mode again. 

Curiously enough, the press release Netflix sent out contains "a brief oral history" of the series, which seems to have been included mostly to dissuade anyone from thinking that SPACE FORCE was directly inspired by you-know-who ... which they probably will, because that's how the show was initially described (like, in no uncertain terms).

Says Carell:

"Space Force came around in a rather atypical way. Netflix had this premise that they thought might make a funny show — the idea made everybody laugh in a meeting, an idea of a show about the origins of a fictitious Space Force. I heard about the idea through my agent, and Netflix pitched the show to me, and then I pitched the show to Greg, and we all had the same reaction to it. There was no show, there was no idea aside from the title. Netflix asked, ”Do you want to do a show called Space Force?" And I pretty much immediately said, "Well yeah, sure. That sounds great." And then I called Greg, and I said, "Hey, you want to do a show called Space Force?" And he said, "Yeah, that sounds good. Let's do it." And it was really based on nothing, except this name that made everybody laugh. So we were off and running."

Sure, we can go along with that! 

SPACE FORCE hits Netflix on May 29th. We're looking forward to it.