NBC Gives Series Order To ‘Quantum Leap’ Reboot/Continuation
Oh boy… NBC has given a series order to the reboot/continuation of the beloved ’90s sci-fi drama ‘Quantum Leap‘ the network has announced.
For those of you unfamiliar with the original series, it starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist working on a government experiment into time travel. When the government threaten to cut his funding, Sam takes drastic action, stepping into the Quantum Leap Accelerator, vanishing from the present day, and becoming trapped in the past. However, he isn’t in his own body but has “leapt” into the body of someone else. Aided by a hologram of his friend Admiral Al Calavicci (played by Dean Stockwell) and the project’s supercomputer Ziggy (voiced by Deborah Pratt), he soon discovers the only way to move time periods is to correct something that went wrong in that person’s life, allowing him to “leap” into another random body and time, hoping his next leap will be the leap home.
This new iteration is a continuation from the original, whilst also something of a reboot. The series sees Raymond Lee (‘Kevin Can F**k Himself’) take the role of Dr. Ben Seong, a world-renowned physicist who has picked up the baton of the Quantum Leap project started by Bakula’s Dr. Beckett. It’s been 30 years since Sam stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now a new team has been assembled to restart the project in the hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it.
Making up the rest of that new team are Ernie Hudson (‘Ghostbusters’) as Herbert “Magic” Williams, a Vietnam veteran and head of the time travel project at Quantum Leap. Using a bit of politicking and his military know-how to keep the Pentagon at bay, Magic buys the team some time to rescue Ben but expects answers once he’s back – On a side note: “Magic” is also a person Sam “jumped” into in the episode ‘The Leap Home: Part II’ of the original series; Nanrisa Lee (‘Bosch’, ‘The Morning Show’) as Jenn, head of security at Quantum Leap headquarters; Mason Alexander Park (‘Cowboy Bebop’, ‘The Sandman’) as Ian, chief architect of Quantum Leap’s AI program; And newcomer Caitlin Bassett as Addison, project lead at Quantum Leap HQ who operates state-of-the-art technology to communicate with an individual time travelling in the past.
This new version of ‘Quantum Leap’ comes from Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, co-showrunners of NBC series ‘La Brea’, write and exec produce, with ‘Blindspot’ creator Martin Gero also exec producing. Original ‘Quantum Leap’ creator/EP Don Bellisario also exec produces alongside original EP Deborah Pratt (who also provided the voice for Ziggy in the original series.) The series is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
‘Quantum Leap‘ does not yet have a premiere date on NBC, but they look to be aiming for a “Fall 2022” release. Given it is a Universal show, it makes it likely it’ll go to Sky in the UK, although that is in no way guaranteed (i.e. Their other show, ‘La Brea‘, is also a Universal series, and that has yet to be picked up here!) If you want to keep track of this or any other tv show, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when they get a UK premiere date.
