Five times when Rainn Wilson showed his brilliance on screen

Amazon Prime Video recently dropped the trailer of highly-anticipated series Utopia. The eight-part conspiracy thriller comes from best-selling author and award-winning screenwriter, Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects), and is all set for a global premiere on September 25. The trailer introduces us to a group of teenagers who are obsessed with a comic book called Utopia.

However, things go haywire when the children discover that all the things depicted in the comic are actually manifesting in the real world. This means more pandemics and safety hazards than the earth has the capability to deal with. When all hope is lost that’s when our very own Dwight Schrute… err, Rainn Wilson enters as our knight in shining armour and races against time to save the world from doom. Will he be able to do it? Or, will their troubles have no end? We can’t wait to find out! Now while we wait for Rainn Wilson to once again create magic on screen, here are five fantastic times where the actor captivated us on the screen - be it films or TV series.

The Office (US)
Rainn Wilson became a household name playing the obnoxious Dwight Schrute in the hit series The Office (US) for nine seasons. On the show, Dwight played everyone’s favourite work nemesis and beet farmer, with a unique sense of humour and always ready to wage a war against his colleague Jim Halpert. A rule-abiding paper salesman, Dwight would do anything to become Manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton. After all, he was Assistant Regional Manager, (okay, okay… Assistant to Regional Manager). Rainn totally nailed his role as Dwight and even though the show ended seven years ago, it is hard to get Dwight's memories out of our heads.

Backstrom

In this TV series, Rainn played the role of a detective named Everette Backstrom. The crime comedy/drama is actually based on a book series about Detective Everett Backstrom and his team who try to solve cases in the city of Portland. As a selfish and self-destructive detective, Rainn brought some humour even in the darkest of scenarios. While Rainn garnered immense praise for his role, the show sadly wasn't renewed after the first season.

Super

This 2010 film saw Rainn Wilson play the role of a cook named Frank Darbo, who becomes a superhero without any superhuman ability, calling himself the "Crimson Bolt". Donning this new avatar, Frank sets out to rescue his wife Sarah from the hands of a drug dealer, while also beating petty criminals. Rainn was praised for his performance as a doofus-turned-superhero by the audiences and the critics alike.

Permanent

Starring Rainn in the lead role, Permanent is a heart-warming movie about a family who is going through some bad times in their day-to-day lives. Rainn stars in the role of Jim, the father of Aurelie and husband to Jeanne. With a little girl who's bullied and just wants to be popular, and parents who can't seem to get along, this family navigates us through the lives of this trio who are putting in efforts to become one again.

Smurfs: The Lost Village

Who doesn’t love Smurfs? And did you know that Rainn Wilson lent his voice to one of the characters? Yep, it was Rainn who became the voice of the evil wizard Gargamel. As the main antagonist, Gargamel's main goal is to destroy the Smurfs. He's gruesome and cruel and overall, selfish. Being the voice actor to such an evil wizard shows true talent coming from an actor who does comedy so well.