Quantum Leap Reboot, Centered on 'New Team,' Ordered to Pilot at NBC

Rebecca Iannucci
·3 min read
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This news certainly warrants an “Oh, boy!”: A Quantum Leap reboot is officially underway, securing a pilot order at NBC, TVLine has learned.

Per the official logline, this iteration of Quantum Leap would pick up 30 years after Scott Bakula’s Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished, at which point “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.” (To answer the No. 1 question on your mind, a source tells TVLine that Bakula’s involvement in the new project is “to be determined.”)

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Original series creator Don Bellisario is among the reboot’s executive producers, as is Deborah Pratt, who co-wrote, co-produced and narrated the introduction of the OG Quantum Leap. Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt (God Friended Me) will write and exec-produce the new take, while Martin Gero (Blindspot) will also serve as an EP.

Airing on NBC from 1989 through 1993, Quantum Leap followed Bakula’s physicist character as he traveled through time and “leapt” into someone else’s body in each episode, often to correct something that had gone wrong in the past. Sam was joined on his time-hopping excursions by hologram companion Admiral Al Calavicci, played for the series’ entire run by Dean Stockwell, who passed away in November.

In September 2021, Bakula told the late Bob Saget (on an episode of Saget’s podcast) that “very significant conversations” about a potential Quantum Leap reboot were happening, though he admitted, “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.” Earlier that year, the actor told TVLine that Quantum Leap “is very special to me,” and that he hoped any potential reinvention of the show would maintain the original’s “quaintness.”

“I would hope that they get the truth of it and the sentiments of it right, and not try and make it slick,” he told us. “Sam was this naïve kid who just happened to be a brilliant scientist who stumbled on something… I would just hope that they would try and keep that, but you know, I don’t know what they’ll do.”

Also on Thursday, NBC ordered to pilot Found, an hourlong drama from All American‘s Nkechi Okoro Carroll (who’s also attached to the network’s potential Life Goes On sequel series). The project follows a public relations specialist — who was once herself a missing person in the United States — and her crisis management team, who now make sure there is always someone looking out for the country’s missing people, particularly people of color. “But unbeknownst to anyone, this everyday hero is hiding a chilling secret of her own,” the logline teases.

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