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Quantum Leap: Ernie Hudson Joins NBC Reboot Pilot Cast in Lead Role

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Less than a week after learning that Raymond Lee (Kevin Can F*** Himself) had been cast as a lead in NBC's upcoming hour-long Quantum Leap reboot pilot, Deadline Hollywood is reporting exclusively that Ernie Hudson (City on a Hill) has also joined the cast in a lead role. Set in the present time (some 30 years after original series star Scott Bakula's Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished), a new team has been assembled to restart the project in the hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine… and the man who created it. Hudson's Herbert "Magic" Williams is a Vietnam veteran and head of the time travel project at Quantum Leap. Using a bit of politicking and his military know-how to keep the Pentagon at bay, Magic buys the team some time to rescue Ben but expects answers once he's back. Lee's Dr. Ben Seong is both a scientist and a man of faith. He's a world-renowned physicist working on a time-travel project known as Quantum Leap. Using the Quantum Leap technology on himself, Ben Seong gets stuck in the late 1980s but there's a twist: he's also suffering from amnesia.

quantum leap
Image: CBS/NBCU

La Brea co-showrunners Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt are writing & executive producing the pilot, with Blindspot creator Martin Gero, original series creator/EP Don Bellisario, and EP/co-narrator Deborah Pratt. Helen Shaver (Station Eleven, Lovecraft Country, Orphan Black) had been tapped to executive produce and direct the pilot. While not currently attached to either reprise his role or produce in some way, Bakula has apparently had conversations about returning (Stockwell passed away in November 2021 at the age of 85). Universal Television (a division of Universal Studio Group) will produce the pilot alongside Lilien & Wynbrandt's I Have an Idea! Entertainment, Bellisario's Belisarius Productions, and Gero's Quinn's House Productions.

Quantum Leap: Ernie Hudson Joins NBC Reboot Pilot Cast in Lead Role
NBC Universal
Speaking with the late Bob Saget as a guest on the actor & comedian's Bob Saget's Here For You podcast last September, Bakula wanted fans to know that while they shouldn't look for a teaser any time soon there had been "very significant conversations" going on about bringing the series back. "There are very significant conversations about it right now going on. I don't know what it would be. I don't know who would have it. The rights were a mess for years. I don't know if they're even sorted out now. That's always been the biggest complication." Bakula has brought up the idea of bringing the series back with Bellisario over the years, "and he would always say, "I can't write it without thinking of you and Dean [Stockwell, who has since passed away].'" But Bakula saw that as even more reason for Bellisario to get his new vision out there, telling him, "just think about me and Dean and write your show. Get it out there. If you have an idea, just write it. I am sure it will be great. I don't know what that idea would be if we did."

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Ray FlookAbout Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.
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