The next season of the "The Office" will be its last. Showrunner Greg Daniels confirmed that the hit NBC comedy's upcoming ninth season will be its swan song.

"This year feels like the last chance to ... make an artistic ending for the show," Daniels told reporters in a conference call Tuesday (August 21). "This will be the last season of 'The Office,' and we're planning a big exciting last season. ... All questions will be answered this year. We're going to see who's behind the documentary."

The end comes two seasons after Steve Carell's exit and as the show also loses Mindy Kaling to her own sitcom on Fox. Kaling is still expected to make a cameo or two this season. While the show has lost some of its fan-favorite characters over the course of the past two seasons, Daniels promises there is enough material to make the show's final season action-packed.

"We will be doing more [character] arcs and more drama in the Jim [John Krasinski] and Pam [Jenna Fischer] story line," he shared. "We are planning some big surprises. ... I'm guessing the show will feel more like Dunder-Mifflin from before the Sabre merger."

With this chapter ending, there had been rumors that Rainn Wilson's wacky character Dwight Shrute might get his own spin-off, but Daniels insisted no plans have been made yet about how the show will end or how any other shows could begin. "Considering we are still NBC's highest-rated scripted show, with a cast of 17 all-stars, any decision about a series finale will be made for creative reasons only," he said.

While Kaling's Kelly Kapoor is set to return to the show for a smaller part next season, Carell has made it clear in the past that when Michael Scott left Scranton, he left for good. "I don't think Michael Scott should come back at all," he told MTV News last fall. "I just think it's better if he just moves along. I think the show should become whatever it's going to become without people traipsing back in."