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Stuart Fails to Save the Universe Team on That TBBT Return/Shocker

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe showrunners and cast on The Big Bang Theory's [SPOILER] returning, and that shocking moment in the opener.

When it comes to big surprises on Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, the sci-fi spinoff of The Big Bang Theory doesn't mess around. The premiere episode, "Spoiler: Gary Dies," sets up the main story of how TBBT favorite Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) must find a way, as the title implies, to save the universe, set on his way by his alternate-universe counterpart. The how part gets a little iffy as he's joined by the love of his life, Denise (Lauren Lapkus) and best friend and Caltech geologist Bert (Brian Posehn) to try to get a hold of a transdimensional device that Leonard (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon (Jim Parsons), and Howard (Simon Helberg) built, but they will have to infiltrate Caltech, which has been converted to a military facility by Supreme Leader Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie). To use the device, they find unexpected help. The following contains major spoilers as creators Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady, and Zak Penn, along with Sussman, Posehn, and Bowie, spoke to TV Line about the surprise and shocking twist.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe Team on [SPOILER'S] Return, Bowie's Guilt and More

The special guest star is Kunal Nayyar, who reprised his role from the mothership series as astrophysicist Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali, who also knows how the transdimensional device works and is about to tell Stuart a key detail before he's gunned down by Kripke. As far as giving Raj that brief happy ending with his royal wedding before his wife was eaten by a giant moth, as he described it, "That's just what happened to him," Prady said, responding to playing to fan expectations. "It just seemed funny," Lorre added. "He did get his dream. It just ended quickly. But better to have loved and lost," Penn said. Raj was the only member of the TBBT group who didn't end up with someone by the finale. "I rode an elephant to my wedding, and now I shit in a bucket," Lorre said with a laugh, "So there you go! We got him to the wedding."

As far as why Raj, Prady said the writers needed "somebody who had the answer… and then he gets killed before he can use it. So, you sort of work back from there," adding the story required someone who can do the math since none of the aforementioned protagonists could do it. When it came to killing Raj, Bowie wasn't comfortable with it at first, "I was very, very taken aback to read that," he said. "And I'm still not 100% comfortable with it, honestly, because it's Kunal, man! Who shoots Kunal?"

The actor made peace with it, saying, "There are two possibilities: One, that universe no longer exists, in which case he did not kill Raj. Or two, that's one of an infinite number of universes, in which case he killed one of an infinite number of Raj's, so it's a rounding error." Bowie told Bleeding Cool, "What I did love, and the writers were very careful to do this, is that once he does this awful thing, he gets the shit beaten out of him, so that was fun for a couple of reasons. One, I thought it made narrative sense and was just good storytelling for the character to be punished."

Posehn's Bert does get revenge for Raj, "Bert gets to beat the shit out of him," he told TV Line. "So, for everybody watching it going, 'Raj, no!' Like, you get that… satisfaction of watching me just pound him like a bear." Sussman was happy to be reunited with Nayyar. ""Kunal is such a love," he said. "He's just a ball of joy, so it was nice going back. I mean, I've kept in touch with Kunal, but we haven't worked together — and in that way — in so many years that it was just a delight." And seeing Nayyar's take on this alternate-universe Raj only heightened the experience: "When they called action and I saw what he was bringing to it, I was like, 'Oh, okay. All right. It's on, it's on.' Yeah. It was awesome."

For more, including Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage Easter egg, a preview of the next episode, and more, you can check out the entire interview. Stuart Fails to Save the Universe streams Thursdays on HBO Max.

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