Quantum Leap To Become A Full Franchise With New Spinoffs?
The Quantum Leap reboot is still forthcoming, but producers already have plans to expand the universe of leaping through space and time.
After decades of no new Quantum Leap on television, it seems like we might be getting a whole lot more at once. In an interview with The Companion, executive producer Deborah M. Pratt described plans for the upcoming reboot of the time travel science fiction show to expand into a full franchise. While the original series was something of a cult favorite and managed a very respectable five seasons (which was a bit easier in pre-Netflix days), it was always quite the high concept oddity. After all, the idea of Scott Bakula time-jumping in and out of random people’s bodies in an attempt to right what once went wrong is not exactly universal, but it sounds like Pratt has some pretty big ambitions for the reboot. Here is what she said:
I think it brings so many new elements. And I go back to Star Trek. Everything that Star Trek can do, Quantum Leap can do. I think we should do a series of movies, I think we should do a series of series, and this is very much the first step into that world. And it will be up to the fans.
To be fair, Star Trek is a good template for Quantum Leap to base itself on. While the former series may have started with Gene Roddenberry’s pitch to make a space-based version of a Western, it has managed to expand into one of the most preeminent science fiction franchises of all time. In fact, there are currently more Star Trek shows being produced than ever before, and the property is expanding into both the young adult market and the controversial NFT arena. And while Star Trek has the advantage of being able to set any new shows basically anywhere in the cosmos, Quantum Leap may do it a little bit better by having the entirety of the time-space continuum to play with.
All of this will depend on the Quantum Leap revival being successful, of course. The new show will be a direct continuation of the Scott Bakula series, which concluded without his character of Dr. Sam Beckett ever managing to leap home. While Bakula is not involved with the reboot (and his co-star, legendary actor Dean Stockwell recently passed away), he has not ruled out a return to the series. The new version of Quantum Leap will star Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Seong, who revives the Quantum Leap program (since it went so well before) and manages to find himself transported back to the 1980s with a bad case of amnesia. It will also star Ernie Hudson as Vietnam vet Herbert “Magic” Williams (the Dean Stockwell role of holographic buddy/exposition source), as well as Caitlin Bessett, Nanrisa Lee, and Mason Alexander Park. If all goes according to plan, all of these characters could be starring in their own Quantum Leap spin-offs, but when has a leap ever gone according to plan?
There is not yet a release date for the reboot of Quantum Leap, but we expect it to be a fall season premiere at the very earliest. Based on the success of the show, we might be seeing Quantum Leap: New Orleans or possibly Quantum Leap: Origins sometime soon, but we shall have to wait and see. For now, it looks like the show is assembling a pretty impressive cast and hopefully will manage to capture that classic Bakula magic.
