He ain’t afraid of no ghosts, or time travel… as Ernie Hudson (“Ghostbusters“) is the latest actor to join the “Quantum Leap” reboot pilot. He’ll join Raymond Lee in the project, which picks up 30 years after the original series left off. The reboot has original series creator Don Bellisario on board.
The original series was made in the 90s, and followed Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett. He too got trapped in time though does retain his memories. He would temporarily possess the body of someone (or leap into it) and attempt to correct “historical mistakes”. He was guided by Dean Stockwell as Admiral Al Calavicci, (RIP Dean). A colorful character who admittedly probably hasn’t aged spectacularly, but was charismatic as hell. We don’t think Hudson’s character will have quite the same dynamic with the protagonist of the reboot.
Spoiler alert: the original series ended with an incredibly ambiguous ending. Bellisario didn’t know if they were going to be given another season. Therefore the fifth and final season answered some questions, but left Beckett trapped in time. We can only cross our fingers for a possible cameo.
We know that in this new version, Lee is set to play Dr. Ben Seong. He’s a physicist working on time travel who gets stuck in the 1980s with a case of amnesia. Hudson is set to play Herbert “Magic” Williams. A Vietnam veteran and the head of the time travel project. He’ll be the one trying to buy time for a team to rescue Ben from the past.
Hudson was most recently seen in Jason Reitman’s “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” where he returned to the role of Winston Zeddmore. He’ll also be in an upcoming film called “Champions” with Woody Harrelson.
“Quantum Leap” will hopefully air on NBC.
