Ryan Howard has been absent from Dunder Mifflin from quite some time but it's only a matter of time before BJ Novak reprises his role on The Office once again.  According to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, “The Temp” will be making a “dramatic” return later his season as part of a top-secret storyline.

This is good news for fans of The Office who have been missing Ryan.  Most of his hilarious scenes on the show involve awkward storylines with Michael Scott (Steve Carell), who might have a “man-crush” on him and makes him do various menial tasks, and office chatterbox Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling), whom he has an on-again, off-again relationship with.

Last time we saw Ryan was in “Frame Toby” where he breaks up with Kelly again after rekindling an affair with her to make Darryl angry and jealous.  In the episode, Ryan reasons that he is going with his friends from high school to Thailand but convinces her to have sex with him one last time and give him some traveling money before splitting up.  Ryan has not been seen since.

Meanwhile, BJ Novak has never really left the NBC sitcom as he also served as writer and co-executive producer for the Emmy Award-winning show.  Some of his work on The Office include “Diversity Day,” “Sexual Harassment,” “Boys and Girls,” “Safety Training” and “Prince Family Paper,” which is his most recent effort.

Besides The Office, Novak is also working on Inglourious Basterds, a film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.  The action-adventure project, which also includes Brad Pitt, Mike Myers and Samuel L. Jackson, is set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II where a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are selected specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: EW
(Image courtesy of NBC)