While The Big Bang Theory‘s latest spinoff will feature many familiar faces, some fans are holding out hope to see the original show’s main friend group return to the small screen.
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe will follow Kevin Sussman‘s titular comic book shop owner as he is “tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon,” per HBO Max’s official logline.
Though the show connects to characters such as Jim Parsons‘ Sheldon Cooper and Johnny Galecki‘s Leonard Hofstadter, cocreator Chuck Lorre said he “cannot speak” about which Big Bang Theory stars will appear on the show.
“That is a closely guarded piece of information that, you know… I’ve taken a blood oath regarding,” Lorre quipped in an interview with TVLine published on Monday, July 28.
Lorre went on to ask the interviewer if it was their “hope” to see certain characters — including Howard (Simon Helberg), Raj (Kunal Nayyar), Penny (Kaley Cuoco), Amy (Mayim Bialik), and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) — on Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. After the reporter responded yes, Lorre teased, “You’re going to love this show.”
Greg Gayne / © CBS / Courtesy Everett Collection
Per HBO Max’s logline, the spinoff will see Stuart interact with “alternate-universe versions of characters we’ve come to know and love from The Big Bang Theory.” And as the show’s title suggests, “things don’t go well.”
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe will also star Brian Posehn as Caltech professor Bert Kibbler, Lauren Lapkus as Stuart’s girlfriend and coworker, Denise, and John Ross Bowie as plasma physicist Barry Kripke. All of the characters appeared on The Big Bang Theory, which ran for 12 seasons on CBS from 2007 to 2019.
Lorre and his Big Bang Theory partner, Bill Prady, serve as cocreators on Stuart Fails to Save the Universe along with Zak Penn.
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe will mark the third spinoff in The Big Bang Theory TV franchise, along with Young Sheldon — which ran for seven seasons on CBS from 2017 to 2024 — and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage — which premiered on CBS in October 2024.
The series was announced to be in the works back in April 2023 and was officially ordered to series earlier this month. “I wanted to do something radical that would take me out of my comfort zone,” Lorre said in a statement about the show getting greenlit. “Something the characters on The Big Bang Theory, would have loved, hated, and argued about.”
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Series Premiere, TBA, HBO Max