‘Quantum Leap’ reboot brings a rare Asian American lead to network television
When Raymond Lee first received an offer to star in “Quantum Leap,” a sequel to the beloved sci-fi series that aired from 1989 to 1993, he thought the show’s
When Raymond Lee first received an offer to star in “Quantum Leap,” a sequel to the beloved sci-fi series that aired from 1989 to 1993, he thought the show’s producers had made a mistake. Instead of a supporting character, he was being asked to play the lead.
“I got to play the lead in theater, [but] I didn’t know if the landscape was there for me to do it in television, let alone network television,” Lee told NBC Asian America. “But lo and behold, it presented itself, and I was like, ‘I have to take this swing.’ This is the role I’ve been waiting for.”
Set nearly three decades after Scott Bakula’s Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into a time-traveling machine and vanished, the new “Quantum Leap” on NBC stars Lee as Dr. Ben Song, a quantum physicist who discovers a way to travel through time and space and fix mistakes of the past by temporarily leaping into the bodies of other people.
Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Song in "Quantum Leap." Ron Batzdorff / NBCIt’s a dream role for Lee, who remembers watching the original with his best friend in sixth grade. He credits showrunner Martin Gero, with whom he had briefly worked on a short film in 2019, for entrusting him to continue the show’s legacy.
Gero, a writer and producer best known for creating the NBC crime drama “Blindspot,” said the creative team, which includes original producers Donald P. Bellisario and Deborah Pratt, was looking to cast a nonwhite actor to headline the revival.
Rating: 5