You’d think io9—a site run by nerds—would enjoy a sitcom featuring a cast of nerd characters. Like, say, The Big Bang Theory, which ran on CBS for 12 seasons. But you’d be wrong: we loathed the show, especially for its often wrong-headed approach to geeky interests (remember how dirty it did Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples’ wonderful comic Saga?), and we cheered when it finally wrapped up in 2019.
But The Big Bang Theory obviously had a crap-ton of fans; you don’t get to 12 seasons and two spin-offs (the recently concluded Young Sheldon and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, which has a second season coming) without some ironclad popularity in place. And that success is still going, as HBO Max has just announced a third spin-off is now on the way. It’s called Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, and we regret to inform any fellow haters that it is, indeed, a sci-fi show.
Here’s the official description: “Comic book store owner Stuart Bloom is tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon. Stuart is aided in this quest by his girlfriend Denise, geologist friend Bert, and quantum physicist/all-around pain in the ass Barry Kripke. Along the way, they meet alternate-universe versions of characters we’ve come to know and love from The Big Bang Theory. As the title implies, things don’t go well.”
Kevin Sussman stars as Stuart, with Lauren Lapkus as Denise, Brian Posehn as Bert, and John Ross Bowie as Barry.
In an HBO Max press release, executive producer Bill Prady, who shares that role with Chuck Lorre and Zak Penn, teased the show’s genre elements: “Putting 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 is incredibly satisfying.”
Lorre described Stuart Fails to Save the Universe as “something the characters on The Big Bang Theory would have loved, hated, and argued about.”
There’s no arrival date yet for Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, but HBO Max has given it a series order, so no doubt it’s full steam ahead on this meta multiverse comic book-inspired extravaganza. Will you be checking it out?