'The Office': Will Charles Miner return to Scranton?

"The Office" will be considering numerous candidates to take Michael Scott's job as Steve Carell departs. Dunder Mifflin corporate hack Charles Miner, however, will apparently not be one of them.

Idris Elba ("The Wire"), who played Charles on seven episodes of "The Office" in 2009, said pretty definitively Saturday (Aug. 7) that the character would not be in the running to take over for Michael: "No, Charles Miner will not be back," he told reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

That doesn't necessarily mean, though, that we'll never see Charles again. "There is an opportunity for me to sort of intertwine with their storyline toward the season finale," he says. "So that may happen."

In which case, Jim (John Krasinski) better watch his back.

Even if a return "Office" engagement doesn't work out, though, audiences in this country will still be able to see Elba this year. He stars in a BBC America crime drama called "Luther" -- which he was promoting Saturday at press tour -- that premieres in October, and he also has a recurring part on Showtime's "The Big C" as Laura Linney's lover.

In "Luther," Elba plays a homicide detective who develops a cat-and-mouse relationship with a suspected killer (Ruth Wilson of "The Prisoner"). It aired on the BBC earlier this year.