Scott Bakula, who played Dr. Samuel Beckett (no relation to the poet) for five seasons on the NBC sci-fi show Quantum Leap, confirmed that he wouldn't be involved in the Quantum Leap reboot. This announcement came via a Twitter thread on Bakula's official account addressing his followers and fans of the original show.
Bakula started the Twitter thread by posting a picture of himself as Beckett wearing a fruit hat, jewelry, and a dress with red poofy sleeves. "Here's the simple version of what's going on with the Quantum Leap reboot and me: I have no connection with the new show, either in front of the camera or behind it." NBC announced the pilot for the reboot in January of this year, and Bakula said a script was sent to him "because the character of Sam Beckett was in it, which makes sense, right?" Bakula addressed the fans, saying, "As the show has always been near and dear to my heart, it was a very difficult decision to pass on the project, a decision that has upset and confused so many fans of the original series." Bakula said the show's concept is still "worthy of exploration," and "in that spirit, I am crossing my fingers that this new cast and crew are lucky enough to tap into the magic that propelled the original Quantum Leap into the hearts and minds of generations past and present. I wish them good luck and happy leaping!"
In the show Quantum Leap, which ran on NBC from 1989 to 1993, Bakula played physicist Dr. Sam Beckett, who proposed that time travel, as long as it was in a person's own lifetime, was possible. With his team and government financial support, Beckett created the Project Accelerator, a device that would enable the person who stepped into it to theoretically go back in time. The government threatened to shut the project down, so in desperation, Beckett tested the accelerator and leaped back in time into a person's life, appearing to everyone else to look like the person he had "leaped" into. Al (Dean Stockwell), who appeared to Beckett as a hologram, used data compiled by Ziggy (a computer created by Beckett) to research the past and help Beckett correct any mistakes or wrongs in that person's life. Once Beckett corrected the mistakes or stopped horrible events from happening, Al says Beckett should be able to leap to his present time, yet Beckett kept randomly leaping into another person and another time, "putting right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home."
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The reboot has a similar premise. As in the original series, physicist Ben Seong (Raymond Lee) used the accelerator for unauthorized time travel, which surprised his team. With the help of military veteran Addison Augustine (Caitlin Bassett), a hologram much like the character of Al, Seong leaps from life to life and rights the wrongs of history. However, if his team cannot figure out why Seong leaped and the quantum leap accelerator, Seong might never be able to return to the present.
The Quantum Leap reboot premieres September 19 on NBC at 10 PM Eastern/9 PM Central. After each episode airs, it will become available on Peacock. If you want to watch the original series, all five seasons are also available on Peacock. View Bakula's announcement and the trailer for the reboot below:
