‘The Office’ Actor Returns $110K of Fan Donations for Stalled Stanley Hudson Spinoff

usmagazine.com:

Leslie David Baker — the actor best known for playing Stanley Hudson on The Office — is returning donations to fans who supported his proposed Stanley spinoff series.“Hello Uncle Stan Family, we apologize about the delay in updates, we have been working behind the scenes to get everything on track and rewards fulfilled,” Baker, 65, wrote in a statement via Instagram on Tuesday, August 1. “We are just as excited as all of you to get this project out and truly appreciate all of your patience and support.”The spinoff show, which was titled Uncle Stan, was set to follow Stanley as he comes out of retirement in Florida and moves to Los Angeles to help his nephew with a failing business.

According to the project’s Kickstarter page, the fundraiser kicked off in 2020 and in the past three years raised more than $300,000 — but seemingly no progress had been made on actually producing the show.

Fans began to question on social media what was causing the delay.“The project took longer than anticipated due to circumstances beyond our control.

Initial delays were caused because of the Covid lockdowns and pushed us back further than expected,” Baker explained in his Instagram post. “As things started returning to normal and we commenced reward fulfillment and preproduction, the WGA strike was announced causing us to put things on hold again.