John Krasinski Responds to Wild Theory That Jim Was the Villain of ‘The Office’

In an appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, actor and director John Krasinski addressed a wild supposition that he played the villain on The Office.

Across nine seasons, Krasinski portrayed Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom, known for his escalating pranks on coworker Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson). An article published on MovieWeb earlier this year hypothesized that Jim is nothing more than a bully, who isn’t even the right man for his romantic interest Pam. Fallon brought up this theory to Krasinski, who seemed shocked someone could even think such a thing.

“Wait, what? Did you make that up?” he asked Fallon when shown a printout of the article. Fallon suggested character might have “manipulated” Pam.

“When you ask it like that, it makes me uncomfortable,” Krasinski replied. “Can you imagine if that’s what it was? … Well, they’re on to me, because I played it as a supervillain. That’s why I did Fantastic Four, to balance it out, I had already done the villain.”

Earlier in the interview Krasinski addressed his recent appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in which he had a cameo as Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four.

“It was a big moment for me,” he said after Fallon pointed out he was in the movie “for a little bit.” Krasinski was asked if there’s a possibility for him to show up as the character again the future, but remained tight-lipped. “They don’t tell you anything,” he said of Marvel.

Check out his interview above—complete with a bonkers back-and-forth impression of Will Arnett—and watch him play catchphrase with fellow guest Maggie Rogers below.