Quantum Leap Showrunner Says You Don't Need to Watch the Original Series to Enjoy the Reboot

When Raymond Lee received a phone call from an NBC producer about the Quantum Leap reboot, the actor couldn't believe he was being approached for the lead role. "I had to confirm that with my reps, and sure enough, it was for the lead," Lee told TV Guide. Setting his disbelief aside, he agreed to read the script. "I thought it was one of the best scripts I'd read in a very long time. And I just wanted to jump on it," Lee said.

When the show premieres Sept. 19 on NBC, viewers will see Lee make a different type of jump — many of them. The new Quantum Leap, set roughly 30 years after the events of the original series, follows Lee's Dr. Ben Song as he leaps into different people from the past. The person's appearance doesn't change to the people around them, but it's now Ben inside their body, and he must find out why he's leapt into their life and how he can right a wrong from the past. 

Ben enters the machine that Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) once stepped into and never returned from. He time travels as his team in the present day — consisting of Addison (Caitlin Bassett), Ian Wright (Mason Alexander Park), Jenn Chou (Nanrisa Lee), and Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson) — tries to figure out why in the world Ben made the unauthorized leap. Complicating matters is that Ben loses his memory once he enters the machine. His only contact with the world he came from is a hologram of Addison, who is also his fiancée.

Lee said the script is one of the best he's read because it's a "fish out of water story." He explained, "I've always kind of felt that way in my life — a little bit like, OK, where am I? And I've always had to find my footing in places." Ben's journey of awkwardly trying to figure things out resonated with the actor. "Obviously, I've never had my memory wiped clean," Lee added. "But just the idea of putting the pieces together from infancy was really exciting for me."

The reboot stands out for being one of television's few network dramas with an Asian American lead. Ben is an immigrant who moved with his mother from Korea to the U.S. "That is another layer, adding on to the theme of being a fish out of water," Lee said. "Essentially, the immigrant is the ultimate fish out of water." 

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The actor, who is of Korean descent, shared how the Quantum Leap team worked toward a more accurate representation of Ben's culture, giving the example of an engagement party scene in Episode 1. "It's my character's engagement party, and they wanted to make sure that the background and the things that adorned their room were consistent with my culture," Lee said. The crew showed him photos and asked if the photographed objects would be items in his house. "They made sure that everybody that was involved was authentically Korean, as my relatives would be," he added. "They're taking every step to make sure that there's authenticity tied in, by vetting it with me."

Of course, Ben will engage with people of different cultures — and from different time periods and geographic locations — as he leaps. It's a journey that feels timely to the actor. "There's a lot of things happening in the world, and there's a lot of news about people in different walks of life and cultures that we don't know about," Lee said. When he reads the news, Lee tries to imagine himself in the positions of the people he's reading about. "I think this is a great opportunity for myself and the viewers to see what it feels like to actually be in another person's shoes."

While filming for the series, Lee spent time studying the original show. "I have to understand the mythology, I have to understand how things worked," he said. "But also I can't get too bogged down by what the original did because ours, everything's on the page." He said that when he has a question, he goes to the producers and writers, including Deborah Pratt — co-executive producer and a writer on the original Quantum Leap. "She's there with us every day, so I feel like she is always there to keep me honest and keep the show honest," Lee explained.

As for how the mythology from the original show will be presented in the series, showrunner and executive producer Martin Gero said it will be in a way that hopefully engages both fans of the 1989 Quantum Leap and new viewers. "There's an enormous amount of people that are vaguely familiar with the title and are just going to check the show out clean," Gero said during a Television Critics Association summer press tour panel. "We didn't want to weigh the show down with a lot of mythology immediately that would make it feel like, oh, I need to watch 90-plus episodes of Quantum Leap before I can start this." He said that audiences can start fresh with the reboot. "Then slowly, over the course of the season, there's an enormous amount of backstory and mythology from the original show that we're really excited to share with fans," Gero said.

The showrunner also discussed how the reboot will be different from the 1989 show. "The original Quantum Leap is basically an anthology series, with a very thin throughline. A lot of character development but not a lot of serialized story," Gero explained. "I think everyone kind of felt from the studio side, the network side — everyone kind of felt like it needed some sort of serialized aspect, and how do we do that?" They decided to explore the mystery of why Ben decided to leap without telling any member of his team — including Addison. "The mystery pulls you through week to week without alienating casual viewers," Gero said. "But the show's called Quantum Leap, and we're going to focus predominantly on the leaps."

Quantum Leap premieres Sept. 19 at 10/9c on NBC and will be available to stream the next day on Peacock.