QUANTUM LEAP sequel series greenlit

The Quantum Leap sequel has been formally greenlit for a first season by NBC.

The new series picks up thirty years after the events of the original show (which ran for five seasons from 1989 to 1993) and sees Raymond Lee playing Dr. Ben Seong, who steps into the revived Quantum Leap Accelerator after it is brought out of retirement. He is both continuing the original project of leaping into different people in various timeframes, putting things right where they originally went wrong. However, he also has a secondary mission: to track down the missing Dr. Sam Beckett, who vanished at the end of the original show's run. Scott Bakula, who played Sam in the original show, has reportedly been contacted with a view to potentially reprising his role at some point.

Seong is guided on his mission by Addison (Caitlin Bassett), who will likely serve in a similar role to Sam's helper "Al" in the original series, who was able to appear to him as a hologram only he could see or hear. Dean Stockwell, who played Al in the original series, sadly passed away last year, so will not return in the new series.

Additional castmembers include Ernie Hudson as Herbert "Magic" Williams (who appeared, with a different actor, in a single episode of the original series), Nanrisa Lee as the Quantum Leap head of security and Mason Alexander Park as the head of the AI program.

Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt are serving as writer-showrunners for the new series, with original Quantum Leap creator Don Bellisario serving as creative consultant and producer alongside original executive producer Deborah Pratt.

The show has completed filming its pilot and will likely be eyeing a late 2022/early 2023 debut on NBC and streaming service Peacock.

Ernie Hudson joins QUANTUM LEAP sequel pilot

NBC's Quantum Leap reboot/continuation is moving ahead with casting for its pilot episode. Raymond Lee (Kevin Can F Himself, Mozart in the Jungle) has been tapped to play the new lead, presumably a new leaper moving back and forth in time, whilst Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) will co-lead, presumably in the new holographic advisor role.

The new Quantum Leap series is a "Next Generation" style of story, picking up thirty years after the events of the original series. The Quantum Leap Accelerator has been mothballed after Dr. Sam Beckett's disappearance, but a new team reactivates it with a view to sending a second leaper back in time.

The search for Sam Beckett is believed to be a key storyline, with Scott Bakula apparently sounded out about reprising his role. Bakula is not expected to appear in the pilot, but may appear if a series order is given. Sadly, Dean Stockwell, who played hologram Al in the original, passed away last year.

Original Quantum Leap creator Donald Bellisario is attached to the new project as a producer and creative consultant, but the writing team is all-new. Helen Shaver will direct the pilot.

QUANTUM LEAP continuation picks up its pilot director

NBC has tapped the acclaimed director Helen Shaver to direct the pilot episode of their Quantum Leap reboot/continuation.

Shaver has a lengthy and storied career as an actress, producer and director, but in recent years has made her name for directing high-profile shows including Station Eleven, Lovecraft Country, Snowpiercer, Westworld, 13 Reasons Why, Vikings, Orphan Black and Person of Interest.

Shaver will also executive produce the pilot and may return to work on the first season further if the show is picked up.

The Quantum Leap pilot has been written by Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, with original Quantum Leap writer-producer Donald P. Bellisario serving as a producer and consultant.

The show is set thirty years after the events of the original show and sees a new team of scientists trying to figure out how the Quantum Leap Accelerator works and if it is possible to use it to track down the still-missing Dr. Sam Beckett. The show will mostly serve up new adventures with a new cast, with the fate of Sam Beckett serving as a lingering mystery. Original star Scott Bakula is not currently attached, but is understood to be in talks with NBC over being kept informed on its status and may join it later on.

So far this is only a pilot order, with NBC waiting on pushing the trigger on a full season order.

NBC greenlights QUANTUM LEAP sequel series pilot

NBC has greenlit the pilot for a successor series to Quantum Leap, the popular time travel show which ran for five seasons from 1989 to 1993.

The new series is set thirty years after the previous show ended and will see a new team investigating the disappearance of Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) in the original Quantum Leap Accelerator programme. Beckett randomly ping-ponged around time for five years under the watchful eye of the super-computer Ziggy and Beckett's friend and monitor, Admiral Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell), before disappearing altogether in the series finale, which ended on the sombre note that Sam never returned home, but continued helping people through time. Quantum Leap achieved significant critical and commercial success, making both Bakula and Stockwell household names, before its divisive ending.

Rumours of a remake or continuation have continuously circulated since the original show ended, with most reports circulating about a feature film spin-off or a full remake unconnected to the previous show.

The pilot will be co-written by Steven Lilian and Bryan Wynbrandt, previously best-known for showrunning God Friended Me and working on La Brea, Gotham, Hawaii Five-O, CSI: NY, Alcatra and Kyle XY as writers and/or producers. Original Quantum Leap creator and showrunner Donald P. Bellisario will produce and advise on the project.

Although Dean Stockwell sadly passed away two months ago, it sounds like Scott Bakula may possibly reprise his role, although it sounds like the premise will be searching for his character, so he is not expected to be a regular character, despite the frequent fan suggestion that Sam Beckett take the Al role in advising a new leaper on their mission through time (possibly Sam's daughter or grandchild).

RIP Dean Stockwell

The news has sadly broken that veteran Hollywood actor and SFF screen legend Dean Stockwell as passed away at the age of 85. Stockwell is best-known to SF fans for his recurring roles on TV shows Quantum Leap and Battlestar Galactica, as well as his memorable turn in David Lynch's Dune.

Stockwell was born in Los Angeles in 1936 and grew up in a showbiz family: his father was a singer and actor who played the voice of Prince Charming is Disney's film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Thanks to his father's connections, Dean Stockwell became a child star, making his first screen appearance at the age of nine in The Valley of Decision (1945). Stockwell went on to enjoy a successful career as a child actor, appearing in films like Home Sweet Homicide (1946) and Song of the Thin Man (1947). Stockwell enjoyed doing comedy, but found his most successful roles were in dramas, so found himself typecast as a "serious kid," which he did not enjoy after a while. Stockwell achieved arguably his greatest success in this period playing the title role in Kim (1950), alongside Errol Flynn.

Stockwell took some time out to focus on education and his interest in music before resuming his acting career in the late 1950s. He achieved some critical success, such as co-winning the 1959 Cannes Film Award for Best Actor alongside Orson Welles and Bradford Dillman for Compulsion. His first SF-related role came in A Quality of Mercy, a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone.

Stockwell continued to work regularly in film and television, becoming a reliable and talented character performer. However, he had not become a leading man or breakout star despite his immense resume and critical acclaim, something he found depressing. In 1983 he moved to New Mexico with his second wife and considered a new career in real estate to pay the bills. However, he was recruited first by Wim Wenders to star in Paris, Texas and then David Lynch in Dune, where the played the role of Dr. Yueh. The role is crucial in the book but somewhat underdeveloped; Lynch's film version arguably fleshes out the character more successfully, thanks to Stockwell's measured performance (the biggest weakness of Denis Villeneuve's 2021 take on Dune is that Dr. Yueh is not similarly developed). Stockwell credited the one-two punch of Paris, Texas and Dune as sparking a "third career."

Stockwell found himself in demand, appearing in a dozen movies in just three years, including another turn with Lynch in Blue Velvet (1986). In 1988 he achieved his sole Academy Award nomination, for Married to the Mob as Best Supporting Actor.

In 1989, at the age of 53, Stockwell finally landed the role that made him a household name when he was cast as Rear Admiral Albert "Al" Calavicci in Quantum Leap. Ostensibly the second lead, behind Scott Bakula's Dr. Sam Beckett, Stockwell stole the show with his exuberant performance, which finally (perhaps a bit late in the day) demolished the typecasting that he couldn't play funny. The role gave Stockwell a Golden Globe win and four Emmy Award nominations. Stockwell played the role across all five seasons of the show, and later re-teamed with Bakula for an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise and another episode of NCIS: New Orleans.

In 2006 he debuted on Battlestar Galactica, playing the role of preacher John Cavil in the Season 2 finale. Quickly revealed as a Cylon, the character was an immediate hit with both the writers and fans, and he returned as a recurring character through the third and fourth seasons, becoming the primary antagonist and villain of the series by its end. He also appeared in spin-off TV movie The Plan. After Galactica's conclusion in 2009, Stockwell returned to occasional TV and film appearances. His final role came in the film Entertainment (2015). The same year he suffered a stroke and chose to retire from acting, focusing instead on his art career which he had continued to pursue between screen roles.

Stockwell died on 7 November at his home in Taos, New Mexico, of natural causes. Collaborators and friends immediately voiced praise for his prolific career. A skilled and versatile performer across multiple genres, decades and mediums, he will absolutely be missed.

Alternate ending to QUANTUM LEAP discovered

Twenty-five years ago this May, the time travel drama TV series Quantum Leap ended. Starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell, the show ran for five seasons and followed the adventures of Dr. Sam Beckett, the inventor of the "Quantum Leap Accelerator". Beckett is stuck leaping from person to person through time, putting right what previously went wrong, solving crimes, helping broken romances etc. It was a very popular, feel-good show.

Or at least it was until it's finale. Mirror Image was a strange episode where Sam leaped into a small American town on the very day of his birth. He met a barkeeper played by an actor who'd been in the very first episode, with the suggestion that both may be a manifestation of "god, fate, time or whatever", and this force had been responsible for Sam's leaps through time. At the end of the episode Sam discovers that he has always had the power to return home, he just chose not to because there were still people to help. In his final leap, Sam sets his friend Al's life to rights, making sure the woman who'd left him because she believed he'd died in Vietnam (instead of being made a POW) knew that Al was safe and coming home. A final title card revealed that, "Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home."

It was a contentious and slightly odd ending, especially because the cancellation of Quantum Leap had come about fairly late in the day, so the finale was a recutting of what had originally been planned to be merely a season cliffhanger (if a far more dramatic one than any before it). Creator Donald P. Bellisario has been tight-lipped about how the story would have continued in a sixth season, but rumours have abounded of a different ending that was filmed and then cut.

A full quarter of a century years later, it's been revealed that there was indeed an alternate ending filmed. Quantum Leap fan Allison Pregler bought some negative from publicity shots for the series via eBay and discovered some odd images that she didn't recognise from any episode. It was only after looking at them closely she realised they came from the much-rumoured alternate cut.

In this scene, we discover that Sam did indeed change history so that Beth waited for Al, they got married and lived very happily together for thirty years. We also discover that Al had still joined Project Quantum Leap, still met Sam and still been his Observer through all his adventures (making fans everywhere breath a sigh of relief). We discover that Sam has vanished without a trace after his last adventure went as normal. The scene ends with Beth convincing Al to go into the Accelerator himself and jump in search of Sam. This, presumably, would have been the premise for the sixth season, with Al physically joining Sam in his adventures through time.

It's great to find these questions that fans have been asking for 25 years have been answered, and will no doubt fuel speculation that the show could either be rebooted or even continued directly (as both Bakula and Stockwell are still with us and acting frequently) in the future.