TV
Comic book shop owner Stuart has to restore order in the universe after accidentally triggering a multiverse Armageddon.
The universe of The Big Bang Theory is about to get even larger. On Wednesday, HBO Max announced that it has given a series order to a new spinoff of the hit sitcom, which aired from 2007 to 2019 on CBS.
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe will focus on comic book store owner Stuart Bloom, with actor Kevin Sussman set to reprise his role from the original series in the new show.
The third Big Bang spinoff (after Young Sheldon and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage) will be something quite different from the original series, according to executive producer Chuck Lorre.
“I wanted to do something radical that would take me out of my comfort zone,” he said. “Something the characters on The Big Bang Theory, would have loved, hated, and argued about.”
What is ‘Stuart Fails to Save the Universe’ about?
Rather than explore further stories of the core Big Bang Theory characters, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe will follow Stuart as he tries to restore reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally triggering a multiverse Armageddon.
Helping Stuart in his quest are his girlfriend, Denise (Lauren Lapkus), geologist friend Bert (Brian Posehn), and quantum physicist (and all-around pain in the ass) Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie). Along the way, the group will meet alternate-universe version of characters from The Big Bang Theory. But as the title suggests, their attempts to restore order to the universe don’t go as they hoped.
‘The Big Bang Theory’ spinoff is an ‘insane’ show
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe executive producer Bill Prady said that writing the upcoming show has been “damn fun” and that it’s been “incredibly satisfying” to put “characters we loved from The Big Bang Theory into a complex science fiction story with the kind of mythology that those characters love while maintaining the comedic elements
“I was on a vision quest in the most remote parts of the Amazon Rainforest when a carrier pigeon arrived with a note from Chuck Lorre asking if I wanted to help make a show that the characters from Big Bang Theory would watch,” Penn said in a statement. “I couldn’t resist that idea, so I packed up my yurt and hailed the next dirigible out.”
“We set out to make this insane show, which lives in a universe created by Chuck and Bill,” he added. “I couldn’t be more honored to be working with these amazing people.”
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe will also feature “a lot of CGI,” Lorre teased earlier this year (via Deadline). While an episode count hasn’t been confirmed, the team has penned 10 episodes of the spinoff.
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