Quantum Leap is an American science fiction television series that aired on NBC. Developed by Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, it is a revival of the 1989 show created by Donald P. Bellisario. Bellisario, Lilien and Wynbrandt executive produce. It takes place in 2022, thirty years after the original show concluded. The series stars Raymond Lee as the new lead character Dr. Ben Song, along with Caitlin Bassett, Mason Alexander Park, Nanrisa Lee, and Ernie Hudson. Quantum Leap premiered on September 19, 2022. In December 2022, the series was renewed for a second season consisting of 13 episodes, which premiered on October 4, 2023. In April 2024, NBC canceled the series after two seasons.
Contents
Premise
Thirty years have passed since Dr. Samuel "Sam" Beckett vanished into the Quantum Leap accelerator. The United States Department of Defense has restarted the Quantum Leap project with a new team trying to recreate the accelerator and retrieve Beckett from the past. For reasons unknown, Dr. Ben Song, the new project's lead physicist, has uploaded new program code to Ziggy, the project's supercomputer and used the upgraded accelerator to leap back in time without informing anyone on the team as to why. He becomes stuck in the past just as Beckett did, living the lives of other people and changing history for the better. However, his leaps appear to have a trajectory to take him to a specific point in spacetime. Project employee Addison Augustine, who is Ben's fiancée, acts as his liaison with the project, appearing to him as a hologram that only he can see and hear, just as the previous project's observer Al Calavicci did for Beckett. Janis Calavicci, Al's daughter, who was excluded from the revived Quantum Leap project, is known to have colluded with Ben in changing the system's code, but her reasons are unknown.
Cast
Main
Raymond Lee as Ben Song, the lead physicist working on Quantum Leap who gets stuck in the past, leaping into the bodies of different people, while also having partial amnesia about his identity as a result of leaping
Caitlin Bassett as Addison Augustine, Ben's fiancée and hologram, who was meant to be the leaper for the new project
Mason Alexander Park as Ian Wright, the non-binary chief technician of the Quantum Leap artificial intelligence
Nanrisa Lee as Jenn Chou, the Quantum Leap head of security
Ernie Hudson as Herbert "Magic" Williams, head of the Quantum Leap time travel project, and a Vietnam War veteran into whom Sam Beckett leaped in the original series' Season 3 1990 episode "The Leap Home (Part 2) – Vietnam" (played by Christopher Kirby in the original series)
Peter Gadiot as Tom Westfall (season 2), a U.S. Army Intelligence officer, formerly of the Special Forces, and Addison's new love interest
Eliza Taylor as Hannah Carson (season 2), initially a waitress in New Mexico in 1949, she is knowledgeable in physics and shows up in subsequent leaps in 1955 (Princeton University), 1961 (Cairo), 1970 (rural New Jersey), 1974 (Baltimore) and 1976 (Sonoma)
Recurring
Susan Diol as Beth Calavicci, the wife of Al Calavicci (reprising her role from the original series)
Georgina Reilly as Janis Calavicci, the daughter of Al Calavicci
Walter Perez as Richard Martinez/Leaper X, a rogue leaper sent back in time to stop the project (season 1)
Alice Kremelberg as Rachel, Ian's girlfriend
Episodes
Production
Development
In September 2021, Scott Bakula, who played main character Sam Beckett in the series, hinted that a reboot of the show was being considered, with creator Donald P. Bellisario returning in some capacity. A pilot episode was ordered by NBC the following January with plans for writers Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt to act as showrunners with executive producer Martin Gero and with original producer and writer Deborah Pratt. Helen Shaver was hired to direct the pilot episode and to serve as an executive producer as well. NBC ordered the revival with a full season pickup in May after viewing the test pilot.
After it received a full season order, Aadrita Mukerji and Dean Georgaris joined as additional executive producers, and Gero took over as showrunner while Lilien and Wynbrandt stayed with the series as executive producers. A new pilot was directed by Thor Freudenthal and written by Lilien and Wynbrandt, with the original pilot being scheduled to air later in the season. The decision not to launch the revival with the original premiere episode of the season was made in order to provide a better introduction in the series, and it was rescheduled as the sixth episode with some reshoots added for context.
In September 2022, Bakula confirmed that he had been asked by producers to reprise his role as Sam Beckett in the revival but had ultimately decided to not be involved with the new series, saying in a statement on Instagram, "As the show has always been near and dear to my heart, it was a very difficult decision to pass on the project".
After the first three episodes had aired, NBC ordered six additional episodes for the first season, bringing its total to 18 episodes. On December 12, 2022, NBC renewed the series for a second season consisting of 13 episodes, which premiered on October 4, 2023. The first 8 episodes of the second season went into production immediately after the first season wrapped, with no break in between because of the impending strikes. The final 5 episodes of the second season began filming on November 27, 2023, once the strikes had ended and there was time for pre-production. On April 5, 2024, NBC canceled the series after two seasons.
Casting
Raymond Lee was the first actor cast in the show, taking the lead role as Dr. Ben Song in March 2022. Shortly afterwards, the cast was filled out with Ernie Hudson, Nanrisa Lee, Mason Alexander Park, and Caitlin Bassett, making her television debut. After being ordered to series, Georgina Reilly joined the cast in a recurring role.
In Season 2, two new series regulars were added: Eliza Taylor (The 100) and Peter Gadiot (Yellowjackets).
Marketing and release
Quantum Leap premiered on September 19, 2022. The show is available to stream on Peacock, the NBC website, the NBC app, and via On-Demand on Comcast/Xfinity Systems for free with ads.
Reception
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 57% approval rating for Season 1 with an average rating of 5.2/10, based on 23 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "This more serialized reboot of Quantum Leap has enough heart to merit a look from viewers with the luxury of time, but it often forgets to have fun with the episodic structure that made the original a classic." On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Home media
The first season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on June 13, 2023. The second season was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the United States on February 4, 2025. The Complete Series was released the same day.
