As was first rumored a couple of weeks ago, James Spader  will indeed be returning to The Office as a series regular this coming season as oddball salesman Robert California. But while his star power (he won three Emmys on The Practice and Boston Legal) makes him the effective successor to Steve Carell, he’s going to be filling different shoes on the show.

Paul Lieberstein, a producer and cast member (Toby) on the show, provided the storyline for Spader’s character, who was seen in last season’s Office finale interviewing as Michael Scott’s (Carell) successor. “He’ll have been hired over the summer as the new manager, but within hours, gotten himself promoted. Within days, he took over the company,” said Lieberstein in an NBC press release. This will make Spader the new CEO of Dunder Mifflin’s parent company Sabre, a role filled last season by Kathy Bates, who is now the star of Harry’s Law.

It’s not clear the extent to which Spader was in the picture as a potential Office regular when the season finale aired in May, but the reaction to his brief appearance was strongly positive and this no doubt pushed him up the wish list. But as we’ve mentioned before, the producers seem to have done the right thing by not placing California at the center of the series, as he’s just a bit too far out there to be “the man.”

Focus will now turn to exactly who will be taking over for Michael as the office manager, and effective star of the show. The smart money now seems to favor the promotion of a current supporting character, perhaps Ed Helms as Andy Bernard. Helms’s status can only have been helped by the runaway success of The Hangover Part II, and he even shares a key résumé fact with Carell, as both were once correspondents on The Daily Show.

Tags: ed helms, james spader, kathy bates, paul lieberstein, steve carell, the office