The Big Bang Theory spin-off Stuart Fails To Save The Universe went back to its roots in the season finale – with a suitably mind-bending twist for its final alternate world.
Throughout the series, Stuart (Kevin Sussman) as well as pals Denise (Lauren Lapkus), Kripke (John Ross Bowie) and Bert (Brian Posehn) were on a mission through alternate timelines in a bid to fix their own… often causing chaos as a result.
In the series finale, they land back at Stuart’s comic book store, have a run-in with a cosmic ball of nothingness who pulled them from the pages of a comic book – and then discover they’re actually on a TV set.
Not just any TV set, but one for a sitcom called Stuart Fails to Save The Universe, complete with studio audience.
To confuse things even further, the group stood-by and watched as alternate versions of themselves were brought out on stage after filming, under the real names of the actors who play them, to rounds of applause from the supportive crowd.
Speaking to Radio Times about the scenes, John Ross Bowie, who plays Kripke, said: “My mind was thoroughly blown, but I was also delighted that I was on a show that would take these massive narrative risks.
“And what I love about that cliffhanger is that it kind of paints the show into a corner, and now it falls to Zach, Bill, and Chuck to get us out of that corner, and I hope they get the opportunity to do so.”
For major fans of The Big Bang Theory, this entire sequence is crammed with easter eggs, as the studio they’re using is Stage 25 at the Warner Bros Studios in California – which is now officially known as the Big Bang Theory stage as it was home to the show for its 2007 to 2019 run.
“It was mind blowing too because we’d had nine episodes of shooting a film, and then suddenly poof, we’re back in front of a studio audience,” he added. “That was just really trippy, and we brought in Mark Sweet, who was the audience warm up comic for all 12 seasons.
“He did the audience warm up for all of Chuck [Lorre]’s shows, but was there for all 12 seasons of Big Bang, and so that’s just sort of a super duper in-joke. But you know, who else were we going to get to play the audience warm up guy? It had to be Mark Sweet.
“So yeah, the whole thing was, I mean… you want to talk about an existential crisis? Even though we were looking at our doubles over on the stage, they were dressed exactly like us, and there was a real sense of vertigo that came with that scene.”
Brian Posehn, who plays Bert, added: “I felt weird. Like I had a weird feeling the whole week just shooting that. It just felt odd, but fun. And then the fact that we were, we could have been on any sound stage, but the fact that we were actually on 25, that was like really surreal. Every time we walked onto that stage, it was like, you know, zooming back to six years ago or however long when we shot the final season.
“It was a super strange feeling, and then watching the doubles and then having the you know introducing Brian Posehn at one point was like… oh, it was super fun.”
While Stuart, Denise, Kripke and Bert walked off the Warner Bros studio lot, onto the streets of Studio City California and into an uncertain future, both Bowie and Posehn shared their hopes of seeing more of the characters in the future.
“We obviously would love a season two,” admitted Bowie. “I would be really bummed [if the show ended with season one]. But it would be a really exciting and singular chapter in my career.
“I really hope we get to make more.”
Stuart Fails To Save The Universe is available to watch exclusively on HBO Max in the UK and Ireland.
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