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Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Wil Wheaton on His Magical Return

Wil Wheaton discusses making a magical return to "The Big Bang Theory" universe in this week's episode of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.

If there's one thing that Stuart Fails to Save the Universe isn't, it's definitely NOT copying The Big Bang Theory's sitcom format, but an alternate-universe sci-fi romp focusing on a different crew taking center stage and bringing back favorites as you've never seen. It's especially refreshing for someone like Wil Wheaton, who hasn't been afforded as many opportunities as an actor as many of his peers, with his biggest signature roles as Gordie in the 1985 Rob Reiner classic Stand By Me and then as Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation; you take whatever quality and/or fun work as you can get. While the young actor's not had the best of experiences within the studio system, he's still been embraced by pop culture and, by extension, the gaming community; the actor, audiobook reader, and host embraces every opportunity he gets, including playing a fictionalized version of himself as a rival to Jim Parson's Sheldon Cooper on CBS's The Big Bang Theory in a recurring role. Wheaton, who hosts the Stuart Fails to Save the Universe Official Podcast alongside Felicia Day, spoke to Deadline about making his return in the spinoff as an alternate wizardly version of himself in the episode "Spoiler: Bert Is Magic" and his epic fight with Brian Posehn's Bert Kibbler, who, as the title suggests, gains magic powers in an all-too-short, arcane battle. As usual, this is your major spoilers warning.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Wil Wheaton on His Appearance in Episode 3, "Spoiler: Bert Is Magic"

"I remember when the script was sent to me," Wheaton said of the Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady, and Zak Penn-created series. "I was reading it and not getting most of it, because I hadn't seen anything else. So, we get to the magic shop (Stuart's rebranded comic book store in the magic dimension), and I knew I was going to be a wizard, because I had a costume fitting. I didn't know anything about what it was going to be. What I see in the script is, 'Wil Wheaton & Burt have an epic fireball fight,' and I took a picture of it, and I texted that picture to Bill, and I just said, 'Thank you.'"

"We had so much fun," Wheaton continued. "Tom [Mahoney], our visual effects supervisor, Brian, and I really went through blocking and coordinating this entire fight sequence. It was about [motions with his hands], 'How do you tease the fireball up in your hands' and 'how to shape the fireballs in your hand.' For a particular kind of nerd [points to himself], it's a really big deal to be a wizard throwing a fireball."

The episode has Stuart (Kevin Sussman), Bert, Kripke (John Ross Bowie), and Denise (Lauren Lapkus) travel to a dimension where magic rules, but science doesn't. Bert discovers he has magical powers he taps into, and TBBT favorite Bernadette, the returning Melissa Rauch, is now a demonic witch who tricks them, to which Wheaton's wizardly self tries to take matters into his own hands before losing to Bert and melting to a crisp. As Bernadette gets what she needs for her concoction, she downs a potion that increases her size to supersentai proportions, laying waste to Pasadena on her way to Stuart's shop-turned-apothecary. For more on Wheaton talking about his elated joy playing a wizard and the The Guild Easter Egg he requested on his costume, you can check out the rest of the video. New episodes of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe stream on Thursdays on HBO Max.

*SPOILER ALERT! Do not watch if you haven't seen Episode 3 of 'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe'

Wil Wheaton discusses his appearance in 'Stuart Fails To Save The Universe' Episode 3 and reveals an Easter egg that's in his costume pic.twitter.com/HTiNpOrGLV

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) August 7, 2026

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