TV

There’s Rainn in Portland as Wilson launches ‘Backstrom’ on Fox

After nine seasons as Dwight Schrute — assistant to the regional manager on NBC’s “The Office” — Rainn Wilson is stepping into a leading role in Fox’s “Backstrom.”

Premiering Thursday at 9 p.m., the new drama casts Wilson as Det. Lt. Everett Backstrom, a slovenly and often offensive cop who, after being exiled in the traffic division for five years, is brought back to lead Portland’s Special Crimes Unit.

“Doing another TV show was kind of the last thing I wanted to do after ‘The Office’ and working so hard for so long on that character,” Wilson tells The Post. “But when I read the character of Backstrom … It’s such a rich, multi-faceted character that I had to take it.

“They don’t come along very often — especially for weird-looking, middle-aged, character guys like myself.”

Created by Hart Hanson (“Bones”) and based on the Swedish book series by Leif G.W. Persson, Backstrom is a skilled detective with self-destructive habits (drinking, gambling, etc.) who employs some unorthodox investigative techniques.

He’s this cantankerous, overindulgent, semi-racist blowhard.

 - Rainn Wilson on his character, Det. Lt. Everett Backstrom

“He’s this cantankerous, overindulgent, semi-racist blowhard,” Wilson says. “His superpower as a detective is [that] he has such a corroded, dark worldview that he’s able to also get into the criminals’ heads and figure out the crimes.”

While the show has drawn early comparisons to “House” for its flawed yet brilliant anti-hero lead, Wilson and Hanson say they were most inspired by the ’70s detective shows of their youth like “Columbo,” “The Rockford Files,” “Baretta” and “Kojak.”

“They were all about cranky men who were good at their jobs but lousy in their personal lives,” Hanson says. “Their bosses didn’t like them, they never had wives, they were difficult, rebellious and marched to their own drummer — and they were funny. That’s the DNA of ‘Backstrom.’ ”

Like Hanson’s “Bones,” the drama is both dark and comic, though the show’s Portland setting makes the tone far more dreary — literally and figuratively — as the cynical Backstrom is often assessing crime scenes in a downpour (requiring long shoots under ice-cold rain towers that Wilson describes as “pretty miserable” for the actors).

Rainn Wilson (center) starred as Dwight Schrute on “The Office.” He is shown with cast members Ed Helms (left, as Andy Bernard) and John Krasinski (as Jim Halpert).Chris Haston/NBC

The ensemble cast includes Dennis Haysbert (perhaps most recognizable as the voice of Allstate insurance); Genevieve Angelson as Backstrom’s young partner; Page Kennedy as colleague Frank Moto; and Thomas Dekker as Backstrom’s roommate, who has a mysterious — possibly familial — connection to the cop.

Though Dekker will get more screen time as the 13-episode season progresses, Wilson says being the lead of a one-hour show is much harder than sitting at Dwight’s desk on “The Office,” throwing out a quirky line or two.

“It made me really appreciate what Steve Carell did because in every scene you’re driving it,” he says. “You’ve got to bring that energy and passion and intensity to move the scene forward. You can’t just sit passively at all.”