It's taken too long for a show called something space-y like The Big Bang Theory to have a multiverse, but that wrong will be righted in the upcoming entry into the franchise. The massively successful The Big Bang Theory owned network television from the time it premiered in 2007 to the time of its finale in 2019.
It's so successful that its spinoffs have had strong runs of their own. The prequel series, Young Sheldon, ran for seven seasons between 2017 and 2024, racking up huge viewership totals along the way, and that show's direct sequel, Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, was renewed for a third season.
Now there's a third spinoff of The Big Bang Theory coming this July, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, and the multiverse conceit of franchise movie-making is coming to The Big Bang Theory. The series stars Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman), the unlucky, sad-sack comic book owner from the original show, and it also stars "Alternate" Stuart Bloom.
We're going to alternate dimensions in the fourth entry in the TBBT franchise. In Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Stuart Bloom is living his life where we left off at the end of The Big Bang Theory, when he's confronted with the reality that there are more realities, and only he can save some of them (or not save some of them) from certain doom.
The series returns several cast members from The Big Bang Theory, including Brian Posehn, Lauren Lapkus, John Ross Bowie, Ryan Cartwright, Josh Brener, Joshua Malina, Wil Wheaton, and more. This series won't just introduce the multiverse; it looks like it will change a lot of what we know about the series.
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is already shaping up to be very distinct from the rest of The Big Bang Theory franchise. For one, it's being made for HBO, which is a departure from the network releases of the other shows in the series. This is the first time a TBBT show is debuting on a streaming platform.
This is also the first time a show in the franchise will dabble in actual science fiction. Though the characters in The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, and to a lesser extent, Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage are absolutely obsessed with science fiction tropes and ideas, the shows themselves are strict, down-to-earth sitcoms.
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is actually a science fiction show, with portals, alternate versions of characters we already know, and post-apocalyptic futures that need to be avoided. The original franchise is a normal world that the main characters wished were more like their favorite sci-fi movies. This series explores a world where that is the case, and it might not be as fun as the main characters would have hoped.
The show just looks different. It has that HBO cinematography that implies, fairly or unfairly, that what you're watching is quality. There's action, mystery, and humor in the show wholly unfamiliar to the other series in the franchise, and it feels like a show designed for newcomers as much as it is for The Big Bang Theory acolytes.
Still, Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, the creators of The Big Bang Theory, are serving as showrunners, now with Zak Penn, a sci-fi veteran, also on the team. With those three at the helm, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe should still have everything TBBT-lovers want to see, while providing even more than they're expecting.
