The new Big Bang Theory spin-off is, obviously, a sci-fi comedy set in the multiverse

Comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Sussman) is tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon. Stuart is aided in this quest by his girlfriend Denise (Lauren Lapkus), geologist friend Bert (Brian Posehn), and quantum physicist/all-around pain in the ass Barry Kripke (David Ross Bowie). Along the way, they meet alternate-universe versions of characters we’ve come to know and love from The Big Bang Theory. As the title implies, things don’t go well.

Reading through the various press statements accompanying the news, this was apparently the brainchild of Avengers and Ready Player One writer Zak Penn, who joins usual BBT mainstays Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady as the show’s co-creator. The basic pitch, coming from Lorre and the rest of the team, is to create the kind of nerdy sci-fi show that the characters on the original Big Bang Theory themselves would have watched. (Personally, we’re pretty sure those guys would be fucking sick of the multiverse as a concept at this point, but what do we know?) Or, to quote Penn (and we would note, for the sensitive, that the following press statement is pretty rough in terms of its “wacky-comedy-words-per-minute” payload):

I was on a vision quest in the most remote parts of the Amazon Rainforest when a carrier pigeon arrived with a note from Chuck Lorre asking if I wanted to help make a show that the characters from Big Bang Theory would watch. I couldn’t resist that idea, so I packed up my yurt and hailed the next dirigible out. At the same time, Chuck sent an expedition to locate Bill Prady, who had been frozen with his shield across his chest in a block of arctic ice. The team assembled, we set out to make this insane show, which lives in a universe created by Chuck and Bill. I couldn’t be more honored to be working with these amazing people.

Sussman, Lapkus, Posehn, and Bowie have been attached to the series since it started picking up traction back in 2023. The premise, meanwhile, certainly makes it sound like various cast members from the original series—who, other than Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik, have been absent from any of the spin-off shows—will pop up, although no official casting has been announced.

[via Variety]