25 January 2026

Fable Reboot Taking Inspiration from Classic 2000s Sitcom

By newsgame

Fable, Playground Games’ upcoming reboot of the classic action-RPG series, is drawing inspiration from an unlikely source: British comedy television series The Office. Fable has never been known to shy away from incorporating humor, but for its next installment, the development team is drawing on one recurring gimmick used in the award-winning comedy series.

There are countless moments in Fable games intended to get a laugh out of players, and the comedy only seemed to increase as the original trilogy went further forward. The first couple of games featured segments like the player character holding his back in pain after dramatically failing to pull a sword from a stone, and Fable 2 starts with a shady peddler selling suspicious items like a mirror that makes the owner more beautiful, but only if they look at it in complete darkness. By the time the third game rolled around in 2010, the series was practically a parody of itself, with weird Fable 3 side quests like gunning down foul-mouthed, enchanted garden gnomes, and characters practically breaking the fourth wall to call out the previous game’s lackluster one-hit kill on its final boss.

Fable: One Narrative Choice Could Make or Break the Protagonist

Playground Games still has quite a bit to reveal about its Fable reboot, but one aspect of its protagonist may be particularly pivotal.

How The Office Influences Fable’s Comedic Appeal

That classic, cheeky Fable brand of comedic approach sounds like it will carry over to the next game as well, as game director Ralph Fulton has revealed that some of its influences include celebrated British comedy series like The IT Crowd and Peep Show. But the search for a great comedy series to start drawing inspiration from started with The Office, the 2001 series directed by and starring Ricky Gervais, which ultimately produced spin-offs in eight other countries, including Australia, India, and The United States. In an interview published to Xbox Wire, Fulton said one gimmick that will be lifted from The Office is its frequent use of characters breaking away from the action to sit alone and look into the camera while giving their thoughts on the current situation, commonly known as a talking head cutaway.

It’s not a feature unique to the show, but The Office‘s mockumentary presentation style uses it to great effect, often to draw out the humor of the situation unfolding between talking head shots or to establish a more organic relationship between the viewers and the characters. “I’ve never seen it in games before, but it allows you a way to really neatly tell a joke or drop a little bit of character detail in a way that would feel really clunky in a dialogue, but suddenly feels entirely natural when you do it to ‘camera’,” Fulton explained. Given that the next Fable game will feature a gray morality system, forcing players to make choices between ethically ambiguous options, this gimmick could also be used to help characters decide which path is more just, or more likely, based on its comedic influences, to poke fun at them for the damage they’ve unwittingly doled out.

Fulton seems confident that this gimmick, and the comedy in general, will land well with fans, and he gives a lot of credit to the actors who will be portraying Fable‘s cast of characters. While the full cast list hasn’t been revealed yet, the game will feature the talents of British actors and comedians including Richard Ayoade, who played Maurice Moss on The IT Crowd, and Matt King, known to fans for his role as Super Hans in Peep Show. Also included on IMDB‘s cast list is the return of celebrated actor Stephen Fry, who will be reprising the fan-favorite role of Reaver he originated in Fable 2, and an unknown character credit for Susan Wokoma of Cheaters fame.

Given Fulton’s recent comments, it’s been a busy week for video game fans who love The Office. As of January 23, fans of the American spin-off can now pick up The Office skins in Fortnite for Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute, as well as special emotes with sound bytes taken from the show and a variety of Dunder Mifflin-themed accessories.