Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is HBO Max’s new sci-fi comedy spin-off of The Big Bang Theory. It follows comic book store owner Stuart Bloom as he stumbles through an infinite multiverse he is spectacularly unqualified to rescue. The idea was first conceived by Chuck Lorre roughly a decade ago and developed with fellow executive producers Bill Prady and Zak Penn.
The series reunites four returning cast members from The Big Bang Theory, Stuart (Kevin Sussman), Bert (Brian Posehn), Kripke (John Ross Bowie) and Denise (Lauren Lapkus). Interestingly, while this is the third spinoff show in The Big Bang Theory franchise (after tYoung Sheldon, and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage) it is the first one to not be a sitcom. Rather than a 22 episode season of half-hour comedy episodes, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is a 10 episode long sci-fi comedy show that’s more akin to something like Peacemaker or Curb Your Enthusiasm. It has higher stakes, massive action sequences, and 40-minute episodes with more room for a complex plot.
The show premieres July 23 on HBO Max, and Screen Brief was lucky enough to attend the an exclusive press conference where the creators and cast spoke about the show. In attendance were executive producers Zak Penn, Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre, as well as cast members Kevin Sussman (Stuart), Lauren Lapkus (Denise), Brian Posehn (Bert), and John Ross Bowie (Kripke). Here are the highlights from what we learned at the event.
On where the idea came from and a decade of “failure”
Q: What motivated the decision to expand the story into this multiverse sci-fi territory?
Chuck Lorre: “I had this idea that Stuart, in the comic bookstore, there was a portal in the back room to other universes. And I’ve always wanted to work in a bigger genre than what we were doing in front of an audience… if you can imagine it now, you can do it in film.” Lorre explained that the original concept for the traces back to a single image in his head during the final season of The Big Bang Theory, roughly a decade ago.
Q: How do you evolve one idea on a set nine years ago into a show?
Chuck Lorre: “You grow accustomed to failure. Because it’s not going anywhere. No one is interested in helping you pursue this. And then the company gets sold three, four times and somebody comes along and says, ‘you know what? Do that.’… David Zaslav was a huge supporter of this, right out of the gate.”
Sussman confirmed how early and how secret it was, recalling a pandemic-era meeting: “You said, ‘don’t tell anybody about this because it’s so early and Big Bang is such a phenomenon’… And then I didn’t hear from you for months and months. And I became convinced that I imagined it. And I went back in my phone and… no, no, here it is, right here! That conversation took place.”
Chuck Lorre stressed, “I never gave up on the idea, but I didn’t know how to pursue it until it became, you know, somebody stepped up and said, this isn’t horrible, proceed.”
On casting Kevin Sussman as Stuart and this real-life connection to comic books
Q: You (Kevin) actually worked in a comic bookstore. Did that help you prepare for this role?
Kevin Sussman: “Nothing could help prepare for this role. That was a coincidence, by the way. Chuck did not know… It was just my day job when I was an actor because I couldn’t get a waiter job because no one would believe… I could carry dishes around.”
He noted the clipboard habit transferred to Big Bang: “I always just did what I did at the comic bookstore: took inventory… ‘okay, what edition number is this?’” Lorre, separately, said Sussman was always the plan: “I’ve been a longtime fan of Mr. Sussman and I just thought he’d be the perfect lead.”
On blending real action and drama with sitcom comedy
Q: The comedy is sophisticated rather than dumbed down , how did you keep it on that razor’s edge?
Bill Prady: “It works because the characters are comedic characters, but the peril is real.”
Zak Penn: “It doesn’t work if the peril isn’t real. But then the characters have to stay who they are, and these characters want to talk about mundane things in the middle of—”
John Ross Bowie: “What was the phrase you used? ‘The mundane and the miraculous?’… when Kevin comes out in the first episode onto the apocalyptic wasteland and asks how it is out there, and Brian’s first answer is, ‘It’s chilly. Wear layers.’ That was the moment… I hadn’t even shown up in the script yet and I laughed out loud.”
On the multiverse and sci-fi elements of the show
Q: With infinite universes, which was the most fun to enter?
Bill Prady: “In every other episode the universe is the villain and they’re fighting the universe… [Paradise is] the one where they’re the villain, where that universe is fine, and they destroy it.”
Zak Penn: “We love all universes equally because they’re all our babies. The asylum episode was a fun universe to play in. The next episode after that where they’re in kind of a paradise, those are just fun to write. But there’s so many others that were fun to actually be on set for. That’s the whole point, there’s an infinite number of variations and we just tried each week as we were writing to come up with something that we thought, ‘well they won’t see this coming’.”.
Q: Do you feel AI is the big bad in this series — is this a warning?
Zak Penn: “Certainly in one episode it is. But… we never wanted it to seem like the whole show is about fighting against AI. We just kind of happen to go down that road. And frankly, it’s as much about the people who are enabling certain uses of AI as it is about the AI itself.”
On landing Danny Elfman for the theme
Q: The legendary Danny Elfman did the theme song. What prompted that idea?
Chuck Lorre: “I called his manager and I said, ‘I know the answer is no, but would Danny consider…’ … And he killed it. I mean, it is beyond my wildest dreams. And he also changed it every week… because every episode’s title sequence is entirely different.”
On bringing back characters from The Big Bang theory as different people
Q: Will we see appearances from other Big Bang Theory cast members?
One clarification from Screen Brief, we’ve been asked not to share spoilers from the show, so we’re keeping this section light. However, viewers who’ve tuned into the first episode will already know that Kunal Nayyar returns as Raj Koothrappali in the first episode, and it’s safe to say that more appearances from past cast members are expected.
Chuck Lorre said that, “They don’t play the character that they played on The Big Bang Theory. They play a different version”
On the instant chemistry of the ensemble cast (who share decades of history)
Q: You hit the ground running as an ensemble — how quickly did you feel the chemistry?
Lauren Lapkus: “I babysat Brian’s son when he was one… he’s 17 now.”
John Ross Bowie: “Kevin and I were auditioning for commercials at the same time in the late 90s… we also found out later that we were on opposite sides of a corporate merger while we were temping… I’ve known him for coming up on 30 years.”
Posehn cut to it: “From the first day, I felt like, ‘oh, this is going to work.’” Prady, from the writers’ side: “These are also four of the most remarkable comedic actors I’ve ever worked with… you were never writing away from a performer.”
Lauren Lapkus on playing two different versions of her character Denise
Q: How did you feel playing those different storylines for the two of them?
Lauren Lapkus: “There was some depth to the relationship… in the cow universe… we’re able to just lean into the relationship a little bit.”
Kevin Sussman: “At the end of The Big Bang Theory, Stuart has this new relationship… and then, of course, the show stopped, and it’s like, ‘that’s so Stuart.’… the format of this show, because it’s a single camera, there’s more dimension.”
On why the Big Bang universe keeps spawning shows
Q: What is it about the Big Bang universe that makes it such fertile ground for so many kinds of comedy?
Bill Prady: “It’s character. All of these characters are interesting people… you want to know more about him.”
Chuck Lorre: “For me, the Big Bang universe is about outliers… brilliant, brilliant minds that were struggling to be part of everyday life. The nerd thing came later. I was never signed on for the word nerd.”
Bowie offered the panel’s sharpest read, delivered as a mock-eulogy: “I’m going to speak about Chuck like it’s passed on… a lot of the shows you’ve produced, the main characters would be tertiary characters on another show… he’s taken the outsiders from Big Bang and given them their own show.” Lorre, uncomfortable: “It speaks to something deep seated in me that we need to discuss later.”
On the title of the show being a spoiler on purpose
Q (audience member): Why was ‘fails’ so important — not tries, or wants to save?
Zak Penn: “It sounded right. We did go through a couple, but… it sounded right.”
Chuck Lorre: “It’s kind of wonderful to title the show with the spoiler.”
Bowie: “Death of a Salesman works the same way.” Posehn, closing the conference: “Jaws.”
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe premieres July 23 on HBO Max, with new episodes every Thursday for it’s 10-week season. Each episode carries viewers into a new universe, and it features a title sequence that changes every week.
If you enjoyed our article on the Start Fails to Save the Universe creators and cast on the original idea for the Big Bang Theory spinoff and how they blend sci-fi with comedy, then please check out more from Screen Brief below.
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