The new Quantum Leap pilot is getting more press lately than officially greenlit series do (not that we’re complaining)! The latest news is that Ghostbusters alum Ernie Hudson will co-lead the show along with Raymond Lee’s Dr. Ben Seong.
According to Deadline, Hudson will play Herbert “Magic” Williams, a Vietnam vet who heads the Quantum Leap time project. The pilot takes place thirty years after the finale of the original Quantum Leap show, and the premise of the first episode revolves around Ben getting stuck in the late 1980s with amnesia.
Buy the Book
Sisters of the Forsaken Stars
As leader of the project, Hudson’s Magic will attempt to keep the Pentagon at bay while the QL team tries to bring Ben back. Once Ben is back, however, Williams wants answers as to what the heck went wrong. Based on the description of Hudson and Lee’s characters, it seems that Ben and Magic are the show’s version of the original series’ Sam and Al (Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell). Does that mean Magic will be wearing futuristic clothes and talking to a memory-less Ben in hologram form? We can only hope.
Hudson’s previous credits include playing Winston Zeddemore in 1984’s Ghostbusters (pictured above), of course, as well as recurring roles on several shows including Oz, Modern Family, Grace and Frankie, and The Family Business.
While the pilot for Quantum Leap is in the works at NBC, the show has yet to be picked up for series order. Given the hype the network is throwing out there about the show, however, we can only hope that it will get approved and beamed our way in the near future.
