Quantum Leap Reboot Adds Three New Cast Members
NBC's Quantum Leap reboot has added Nanrisa Lee (Bosch), Mason Alexander Park (Cowboy Bebop) and newcomer Caitlin Bassett to the cast. Lee will play Jenn, the head of security at Quantum Leap headquarters; Park will be playing Ian, the main architect of the Quantum Leap A.I. program; Bassett is playing Addison, a "project lead" at Quantum Leap HQ, who will manage the technology used to communicate with time travelers in the past.
The New Quantum Leap series is set 30 years after Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. A new team is assembled to restart the project and investigate the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it. Actor Raymond Lee plays the lead, Dr. Ben Seong, a world-renowned physicist working on a time-travel project known as Quantum Leap who gets stuck in the late 1980s with amnesia. Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson also stars as Herbert "Magic" Williams, a Vietnam Vet who is now head of the Quantum Leap program.
Quantum Leap ran for 97 total episodes (five seasons) on NBC between 1989 and 1993. It followed the story of Beckett (Bakula), a physicist who tests his theory that time-travel within one's own lifetime. He soon discovers that he can "leap" into the past temporarily in the place of another person and with the help of a hologram of his best friend Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell), realizes that he has to fix issues from the past in order to "leap" back out.
Scott Bakula commented on Quantum Leap's possible return in February 2021, with the actor saying: "That show is very special to me, obviously, so I would wish whoever did it luck. I mean, the idea of walking in another man or woman's shoes is so relevant and so important right now. We've become so divided in our world that the ability to cross that line of politics and just deal with the humanity and the individual person who's sharing a moment on the planet with you is really relevant."
Bakula added: "There was also a quaintness about the show because it had this period feel because Sam traveled anywhere within his own lifetime. That made it feel a little old-fashioned, but I would hope that they get the truth of it and the sentiments of it right, and not try and make it slick. Sam was this naïve kid who just happened to be a brilliant scientist who stumbled on something and all of a sudden was thrown into all of these different lives and worlds and people and situations that he never could've imagined growing up in. I would just hope that they would try and keep that, but you know, I don't know what they'll do."