Trivia / Quantum Leap (2022)

• Acting in the Dark: According to Raymond Lee, while he and Walter Perez were filming "Ben, Interrupted," they also filmed a fight scene set in the asylum for the season finale. However, they only received the two pages from the finale's script with no indication of what the rest of the finale was about.
• Actor-Shared Background: Jenn is of mixed Korean and Chinese heritage, just like her actor Nanrisa Lee.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • The name for Al's daughter, Janis, appears to have been taken from Al's Wikipedia article, which is edited by fans, rather than any official source.^note The name was added back in 2016 by an anonymous editor.
  • Janis using Al's old handlink to hack Ziggy seems to have been borrowed from a fan theory about the evil leapers somehow using the handlink that Al accidentally left in the past (in "The Leap Back") to hack Ziggy to learn how to set up their own leaping project.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Caitlin Bassett was an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army before going into acting and thus brings some real world experience working with classified information to the character of Addison Augustine.
  • Raymond Lee told The Quantum Leap Podcast that Walter Perez had boxing in his background, lending some realism to Ben and Martinez's fight scenes in "Judgment Day."
• The Character Died with Him: The first episode confirms that Al Calavicci died in 2021, just like his actor Dean Stockwell.
• Dark Horse Casting:
  • Addison is not only Caitlin Bassett's first lead role, it's one of her first onscreen roles ever; as of the first season, her only other acting role listed on IMDB is for an eight minute short film from 2020. It's a stark reversal to the original series' observer, who was played by a seasoned onscreen actor.
  • The Latin American Spanish dub deserves a special mention: In stark contrast with the dub of the original series, which was dubbed by many well-known voice actors at the time, with the sole, partial exception of Sam Beckett's voice actor, the dub of this show is mostly filled by either voice actors with less than 20 to 15 years of experience under their belts, like Alan Prieto, Ben's voice actor, others are voiced by amateur voice actors doing their debuts in the industry, like Mireya Durán, Addison's voice actress. So far, there's basically no older voice actors from the 1990s or older participating in this show, not even dubbing extras or one-shot characters.
• Development Gag:
  • Ben's first leap is to Philadelphia on July 13, 1985, the day of the Live Aid concerts. In the unused Bold Leap Forward TV movie script, Sammie Jo's first leap is to the same city and day.
  • Ben's leapee's surname in "Family Style" is "Prasad." In the original casting call for the series, Ben's surname was "Prassad," which was changed to "Song" after Raymond Lee was cast.
  • In this series, the newer Ziggy occasionally proposes killing another person as a means to an end, which Ben shuts down but Martinez has no problem with. In the original series, the original ending for "Deliver Us from Evil" has Ziggy telling Sam to kill Alia to complete the leap, which was presumably cut from the episode because of how dark and out-of-character it was.
• Fake American: British-Canadian Georgina Reilly as Janis Calavicci, British Peter Gadiot as Tom Westfall, Australian Eliza Taylor as Hannah Carson and British James Frain as Gideon Ridge/Jeffrey Nally.
• Half-Remembered Homage: Showrunner Dean Georgaris told The Quantum Leap Podcast that he had watched every episode of the original series some time ago, but made the conscious decision to avoid rewatching it when it was time to do the new one.
• In Memoriam: The first episode is dedicated to Dean Stockwell.
• The Other Darrin: Ernie Hudson replaces Christopher Kirby as Herbert "Magic" Williams.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Showrunner Dean Georgaris told The Quantum Leap Podcast that he'd loved the original show and watched every episode when it was originally on, although he also noted that he wasn't a rabid fan.
  • Nanrisa Lee said that she is a fan of the original Quantum Leap, and used to watch it with her dad when she was a kid. When Nanrisa told her dad that she had a part on the new series, he immediately asked if she was playing a leaper.
  • Ernie Hudson said that he used to watch the original with his sons, and found it a great show to discuss with them.
  • Jamie Jackson, who wrote the original song "Traveling On" for "Fellow Travelers," said she enjoyed watching the original series.
  • William Mark McCullough, who plays McDonough in "Salvation or Bust," said that the original series was his favorite show. He mentioned that just before he filmed his audition video for the episode, he cried after explaining the plot of its series finale to a friend of his.
  • Shakina, who wrote, directed, and guest starred in "Let Them Play," said she loved the original series, and cited the episode "Running For Honor" (also about LGBT issues) as an inspiration for her own episode.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • Ian is played by Mason Alexander Park. Both are non-binary and use they/them pronouns.
  • All of the trans characters in "Let Them Play" are played by trans actors.
  • Bailey in "This Took Too Long!", a US soldier penalized for having a romantic relationship with another male soldier in 1978, is played by François Arnaud, who is bisexual.
• Real-Life Relative: Ian's Love Interest Rachel is played by Mason Alexander Park's real-life partner Alice Kremelberg.
• Role Reprise: Susan Diol reprises her role of Beth Calavicci from the original series.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting:
  • Georgina Reilly believably looks like she could be the daughter of Dean Stockwell and Susan Diol.
  • Caitlin Bassett looks like she could be related to her onscreen father Brandon Routh.
• Sequel Gap: There is a 29 year gap between the original show's finale in 1993 and the sequel show's premiere in 2022. Story-wise, the gap between the time traveler's "present day" is a difference of 23 years (1999 for Sam during the original series' finale, and 2022 for Ben during the sequel series' premiere).
• Spoiled by the Cast List:
  • Georgina Reilly's name in the opening credits for "O Ye of Little Faith" spoils that Janis will not only make an appearance (which she does at the very end), but also that Janis is likely the reason for the Imaging Chamber's Phlebotinum Breakdown.
  • Similarly, Walter Perez's name at the beginning of "S.O.S." spoils that Ben will have another run-in with Martinez, which he does at the very end.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ben's last name was originally Prassad since he was envisioned as being of South Asian descent. When Raymond Lee was cast, the last name changed to Seong (which was itself eventually changed to the spelling "Song"), and his ethnicity became explicitly Korean. Ben was also going to be religious; this was changed by the time the series premiered, as Ben's lack of faith is a plot point in the Halloween episode.
  • According to Scott Bakula, the original pilot script did include a role for Sam Beckett but he ultimately decided to pass on the project.^note When the original pilot script was released online, it revealed that Sam had leaped into a young man in 2022 and was collaborating with Janis.
• Word of God: Showrunner Drew Lindo has confirmed that Ben is not the father of Hannah's son Jeffrey.

---