As fans begin to wonder if Quantum Leap has been renewed or cancelled, the series' creators hinted at Season 3's potential release.
The time-bending NBC series has been running since 2022 in its current form, following up on the beloved '90s show of the same name.
The revival has been met with middling reviews since its debut, hitting a meager 57% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite this, NBC has continued to feature the series prominently but has remained tight-lipped about anything beyond the show's recently completed second season.
Quantum Leap Season 3 Gets an Update
Despite Season 2 having just ended, Quantum Leap showrunners Martin Gero and Dean Georgaris publicly offered an update on the release of Season 3.
In a conversation with Deadline, Gero and Georgaris revealed that have yet to do a "long-form pitch," but the network knows "where [they]’re going" and have even signed on for a "little epilogue moment" in Season 2 teeing up more stories in the sci-fi universe:
"We haven’t done a long-form pitch. They know definitely what the shape is, and they signed off on our little epilogue moment with Ben and Addison, so they know where we’re going. But no, we haven’t done our big song and dance thing."
Gero (specifically) added, they "absolutely" after the deep dive pitch ready, and have been planning Season 3 since "the strike was over:"
"Oh, absolutely. We’ve been thinking about this since the strike was over and once we kind of finalized what the episode count was going to be, we started thinking and working on Season 3."
When asked if series mainstays Ben and Addison would be time-traveling together in Season 3, Gero said, "That is the intended beginning:"
"Yeah. We don’t want to get too far into it, but absolutely. That is the intended beginning."
While it has felt like the meeting of Ben and Addison in the same physical space could be a ready-made moment for a series finale, Geogaris disagreed, admitting that was not a part of their thinking, despite fan speculation to the contrary:
"Interestingly, we actually didn’t craft it to be a series finale. The fact that Ben [Raymond Lee] and Addison [Caitlin Bassett] are in the same physical space can feel like a completion, of sorts, of the first part of their journey. But what we wanted to do for Season 2 was to tell a really emotional story with this incredible cast that we had."
"When we got the early renewal for season two, we knew we were not going to end it on a cliffhanger," the Quantum Leap creative continued, saying they plan to "end it on the first scene from Season 3" and not the last scene of the show entirely:
"When we got the early renewal for Season 2, we knew we were not going to end it on a cliffhanger. We were going to end it on the first scene from Season 3, and we’re going to end it with the two characters together, but in a way that you never expected. And that sort of says to the audience, 'Look at all the great places we can go.'"
This allows for a feeling of "completion for audiences" but also the "the launch for the rest of the journey:"
"So if it feels like a completion for audiences, that’s wonderful. It is a completion of part of the journey, but I think for us, it serves as the launch for the rest of the journey."
This is in line with conversations the showrunners have had elsewhere about Season 3.
Previously, the pair told Collider, "[they are] raring to do a third [season]," but are "gonna have to hold [their] breath until May" to find out if they get the chance:
"I think we’re gonna have to hold our breath until May. I think we’ll find out in and around the Upfronts with everybody else. It was extenuating circumstances that we got to know so early last time. We now have to just wait our turn like everybody else. We’re raring to do a third season. We know what the shape is. We obviously know where it starts. And so, fingers crossed."
When prodded on what that third potential third season could look like, the co-showrunners revealed that - at the time - they were "very early" in planning Season 3, but are "as excited about Season 3 as we were about Season 2:"
"It’s really hard to say because, honestly, it’s very early stages, and also, it hasn’t been approved widely. We have a very clean vision, but we need to go through the proper channels to make sure that everyone else agrees. We’re as excited about Season 3 as we were about Season 2, and you just saw how fun Season 2 was."
Is Quantum Leap Renewed or Cancelled?
Much like the state of the world within the Quantum Leap series itself, the future for the NBC drama is a little murky.
Fans are worried the show may be kicked to the curb following the end of its dramatic second season, and that very well may be the case.
Throughout its run on cable, Quantum Leap has failed to rake in the kind of viewers that would make something like a Season 3 announcement a guarantee.
The show topped out at a solid 5.52 million viewers with its series premiere back in September 2022 but has failed to reach anywhere near that high watermark since.
Season 2's biggest episodes only reached a meager 3 million people, with the season finale hitting a season-low 1.34 million viewer mark.
While the show saw enough success to warrant a second season, it would not be all that surprising if Season 2 was the end of this sci-fi revival.
As the series showrunners Martin Gero and Dean Georgaris said, the end of Season 2 - while also serving as a "launch for the rest of the journey" - feels like the end of this chapter of the story.
Because of this, the series creatives may have backed themselves into a corner, giving NBC an easy out should the network want to part ways with the show.
Both Gero and Georgaris seem passionate about the story they have ready to tell should they be given the chance to do so, it is just a matter of whether it makes financial sense for the network to pursue a renewal for the series or cancel it outright.
Sadly, this is something fans (and the creative team behind the series) likely will not know until NBC presents its upfronts later in the spring, outlining what is to come for the rest of the year on the TV giant.
Quantum Leap Season 2 is now streaming on Peacock.
Read more about Quantum Leap below:
Full Cast of Quantum Leap 2023-24 - Every Main Character & Actor Who Appears (Photos)
