Fans of NBC's The Office hoping to get their fill of Rainn Wilson on TV every week will find their wish granted in Fox's new procedural Backstrom.

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Wilson, who famously played the peculiar Dwight Schrute on The Office for nine seasons, is set to play another peculiar fellow by the name of Det. Everett Backstrom. In Backstrom, Wilson plays an ornery detective who doesn't necessarily play by the rules yet is still brilliant at his job.

He has a group of fellow criminologists who help him on the various cases covered week to week.

While the show has been criticized for having similar sensibilities as another Fox show, House, Wilson told TVLine recently that they are actually quite different.

Wilson said that Backstrom is "such a different guy," than Dr. House, played by Hugh Laurie in that series. "This is a guy [who is] slovenly, wears his heart on his sleeve, just blurts things, lets it all out. He's just much more all over the place" as opposed to the "sharp, shrewd pill popper... But there's been a long and fruitful history of, essentially, really unlikable messes of characters driving shows, and this is definitely in that tradition."

Rounding out the cast of criminologists is Det. Nicole Gravely (Genevieve Angelson), Backstrom's second in command, followed by Officer Frank Moto (Page Kennedy) of the Special Crimes Unit, Kristoffer Polaha as Sgt. Peter Niedermayer, a Forensics Liaison, Dennis Haysbert as Det. John Almond, a religious detective, Beatrice Rosen as Nadia Paquet, a civilian who helps the detectives and Thomas Dekker as Gregory Valentine, Backstrom's decorator and roommate.

Wilson admitted that the role was too "magnificent" for him to pass on, observing the complexity of Backstrom.

"He's very cantankerous, self-hating, racist, sexist and addictive, but he's got a lot of heart and humanity and humor, and a lot of different dimensions. And that's just really rare... It's very complex and challenging. And I was a little bit afraid of it, so I knew that that was a good thing."

Backstrom premieres Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

Watch the promo for Backstrom below:

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Television, Fox