‘The Big Bang Theory’s Sci-Fi Spin-Off Is Officially Changing Its Formula With Every Episode

Over a decade ago, at the height of The Big Bang Theory’s popularity, an idea for a spin-off series that was “nothing like the mothership show” was tossed around about Kevin Sussman’s comic book shop owner, Stuart Bloom. Despite the original series’ hold on viewers, it would still be a few years before Young Sheldon proved that expanding this universe could generate enough enthusiasm beyond the OG gang. Now, shepherded by creators, writers, and executive producers Chuck Lorre, Zak Penn, and Bill Prady, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is set to premiere on HBO Max this month, offering fans a completely new and unexpected adventure within the franchise.

In the 10-episode series, Stuart breaks a device built by Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) that causes a multiverse Amageddon of sorts. He enlists the help of his girlfriend Denise (Lauren Lapkus), his geologist friend Bert (Brian Posehn), and “quantumphysicist/all-around pain in the ass” Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie) to join him as they embark on a quest to save the universe, where all along the way they encounter alternate-universe versions of beloved characters from The Big Bang Theory.

Talking with Collider’s Steven Weintraub, Lorre, Penn, and Prady discuss how they finally discovered the perfect way to continue this world despite “a total departure in terms of genre and style,” and how they essentially created a “pilot every week” to capture the show’s multiversal hijinks. They talk about filming in Los Angeles and how it allowed them to deliver a show this ambitious, writing in DC characters, and how they collaborated with Academy Award-winning composer Danny Elfman on an opening sequence that viewers won’t ever want to skip. Check out all this and more in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.

‘Stuart Fails To Save the Universe’ Was Originally Pitched 12 Years Ago

“Suddenly, there’s interest, and we got a chance to do this.”

COLLIDER: Chuck and Bill, how long after The Big Bang Theory had gone off the air was Warner Bros. calling you and saying, “Let’s talk about what the hell else we can do with this?”

CHUCK LORRE: They never did that. They never called and said, “What the hell else can we do with this?” In fact, the idea for this show was pitched to them about 12 years ago, and they passed. The idea of Stuart having a portal to other dimensions in the back of the comic book store was pitched to them in the last season of The Big Bang Theory, I guess as a spin-off, and there was no interest. So, 10, 11 years go by, and suddenly, there’s interest, and we got a chance to do this.

What were those initial conversations like between the three of you in terms of what you wanted to accomplish with this, how you wanted to film it? Was the show almost something radically different?

ZAK PENN: No. Chuck approached me a number of years ago, five or six years ago, and said, “Would you help me with this?” He did say to me, “I want to do a spin-off that is nothing like the mothership show, that is a total departure in terms of genre and style and everything else.” We came up with a lot of stuff, but had a lot of trouble figuring it out. Then we called in Bill, and he said, “Guys, here’s what we’re going to do.” And the next week, we were writing.

LORRE: We started writing, yeah. It unfolded very quickly.

PENN: But it was this. It was this show always.

LORRE: And it did help that even though time had passed, Warner Bros. and HBO got behind the idea. They didn’t understand it, but they got behind it.

‘Stuart Fails to Save the Universe’ Is a Major Departure From ‘The Big Bang Theory’

“Each episode is a fully realized pilot.”

Image via CBS

[Laughs] The series is very ambitious. You’re essentially making a pilot every week. At what point during the making of the show were you like, “What the F were we thinking making a pilot every week?”

LORRE: Every day.

BILL PRADY: Every day. Yeah.

LORRE: Every day. “What the F were we thinking?”

PRADY: During the writing process, sometimes about three times a day.

PENN: It’s funny because once we got to the first day of shooting, I felt like, “Wow, this crew is prepared. People know what they’re doing.” I wondered, would people be able to do what we were putting on the page for them? And they just kept delivering. They kept sending us stuff and saying, “Is this right?” And we’re like, “That’s even better than we thought.”

LORRE: We were blessed with an astonishing crew. A big part of that is that the California tax break allowed us to shoot this in Los Angeles, so we had the crème de la crème of craftsmen, artisans, costume, hair, makeup, set design, set decorating. We were blessed. So, each episode is a fully realized pilot.

Completely. I have watched many episodes of this and I saw what you guys accomplished.

Chuck Lorre, Zak Penn, and Bill Prady Explain the Science Behind ‘Stuart Fails to Save the Universe’s Opening Credits

The trio also teases those DC character cameos.

I definitely have to ask you about the opening credits because they made me laugh.

LORRE: That makes me so happy. Thank you. [Laughs]

How much did you debate what the opening credits would be, and how much writing did you spend? Because every episode you have different text on the screen. How long did it take you to figure out what you wanted there?

LORRE: This began with me arguing that that “skip titles” button on streaming shows that you have is a shame. So much time and money and creativity go into opening titles, and after you’ve seen it once or twice, most people, I presume, skip titles and go right to the show. But that time that the titles take, whatever it is, 30, 40 seconds, a minute long, that’s valuable time you could be entertaining the audience. You could be, perhaps, causing them to laugh. So, that meant we would have to write 10 different opening credits sequences, and make them all standalone. No one’s going to click on the “skip titles” button because “let’s see what these idiots are doing this week” keeps them from doing that.

Then we got the incredible blessing of Danny Elfman agreeing to do the theme, and he did a killer theme. Then he messed with it in every episode so that it’s not the same theme. He remixed it, he reproduced, he added elements, he reorchestrated it. So, every week you get an opening title sequence that’s very different, as well as musically different.

That’s the thing. There are very few TV shows that actually change the opening credits.

LORRE: There are none! [Laughs]

PRADY: Well, there have been some.

PENN: Game of Thrones used to change some.

LORRE: They’re the same bit with the things that move.

PRADY: The Dick Van Dyke Show. Sometimes he tripped over the ottoman, and sometimes he didn’t.

LORRE: Okay, I’ll give you that.

There have been, but that’s when you want to watch, when there’s something different.

LORRE: But there was no skip button on that.

You have some DC characters that make an appearance. What was the debate like behind the scenes on which characters you wanted to include? Also, there’s a good joke about A-list versus who you could get.

PENN: Well, you can tell from the title of the episode, when those people out there eventually watch it, that will tell you who the original superhero we were going to use was, and then who we ended up with, which kind of turned into the joke that you’re referring to in that episode.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes will be released every Thursday.

Release Date

July 23, 2026

Network

HBO Max

Directors

Kyle Newacheck

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  Kevin Sussman

  Stuart Bloom

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