Domhnall Gleeson Was ‘Slightly Apprehensive’ About Joining ‘The Office’ Spinoff ‘The Paper’ (Exclusive)

Domhnall Gleeson, 42, is no stranger to joining popular franchises (he’s appeared in Star Wars and Harry Potter), but he admits he was initially unsure about signing on for The Paper, a new spinoff of the iconic series The Office.

“I was a big fan, which made me slightly apprehensive about tackling something adjacent to the universe,” he tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

One person he asked for advice was The Office star Steve Carell. “I dropped him a line because I value his opinion as an artist and as a great person. He said, ‘It’d be mad not to work with [The Office executive producer] Greg Daniels if you had the opportunity.’”

He also spoke to John Krasinski, who played Jim Halpert on the NBC series. “I was actually working with John when I chose to jump onto The Paper, so I talked to John about it quite a bit,” Gleeson says.

He adds, “But really, the thing is we can only do our own show, and so I was just excited about doing that. Once I made the decision to do it, I think the idea is to not look back, but to look forward as much as possible and make it our own thing.”

The new series (streaming now on Peacock) focuses on the company that bought Dunder Mifflin, which produces toilet paper and owns a failing local newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. Gleeson plays Ned Sampson, the eager new editor.

Joining him, Sabrina Impacciatore plays Esmerelda, his managing editor and The Office veteran Oscar Nuñez reprises his role as accountant Oscar Martinez. Others include Melvin Gregg, Chelsea Frei, Ramona Young, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman and Tim Key.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

To prepare, Gleeson traveled around Ohio for about a week, visiting newspapers around the state. He says he saw the “hope of these very important local newspapers” but also “the challenges they’ve been up against over the last few years.”

“I think what’s fizzing along all the time in the background [of The Paper] that no matter your politics, knowing the truth about the place where you live and the people who are running the place where you live, that is worth fighting for,” he says. “And that is in a tough place at the moment for a myriad of reasons, but keeping that stuff alive and the people who do it and how they remain optimistic and how they maintain the fight, I think all that sort of stuff is something that I’m hopeful for.”

Whether or not viewers take away an appreciation for local journalism, “what I want is for people to have a really lovely time watching,” says Gleeson.

Leading a workplace comedy is something Gleeson, whose father is Oscar-nominated actor Brendan Gleeson, never envisioned as a “very shy” young boy.

“I wanted to write and direct, but I got a job acting in a very funny play, and it taught me how to express myself emotionally,” Domhnall says.

Ever since, acting has helped shape his life. “I’ve had a weird give-and-take thing with this job where it’s taught me a lot,” he says. “I’ve taken a lot from the people I’ve worked with and the situations I’ve found myself in. I don’t think I brought all that to being an actor. I actually think acting brought a lot of that to me.”

From time to time, he talks business with his famous father and brother Brian Gleeson, who stars in Bad Sisters.

“We talk about [acting] and we run problems by each other and look for advice, but I do the same thing with my mother and with my two brothers who are not actors,” Domhnall says. “I am very, very lucky with them.”

When he’s not working, Gleeson says he enjoys “pretty boring stuff” like rock climbing, swimming in the sea and reading books in pubs in his hometown of Dublin. 

“I’ve never really considered moving away,” he says of his native Ireland. “My parents live here, loads of people I love live here. One of my brothers is here, and two of my brothers are in London, which is always nice.”

As he readies himself for fan reaction to the series, he knows there will be “inevitable comparisons” to the original.

“You can think of it two ways. You can think of it as being a pressured environment, like, ‘Oh God, people will expect a certain thing and do I need to deal with their expectation?’ Or you can think about what’s exciting about it and you can think about the artistic challenges of it.”

He says he’s going with the latter: “That was more the way that I chose to think about this.”

Adding, “I just took it on its own terms. And on its own terms, I thought it was something really special.

The Paper premieres Sept. 4 on Peacock.