{"id":770153,"date":"2026-07-18T11:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/770153\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T11:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T11:51:12","slug":"how-john-ross-bowies-kripke-was-added-to-original-stuart-leads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/770153\/","title":{"rendered":"How John Ross Bowie’s Kripke Was Added To Original ‘Stuart’ Leads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe first major development on HBO Max<\/a>\u2018s long-gestating Big Bang Theory spinoff came in October 2024 when three alums from the original series, Kevin Sussman<\/a>, Brian Posehn and Lauren Lapkus<\/a>, were signed into talent-holding deals<\/a> by the studio behind the hit comedy franchise, Warner Bros Television, for the purpose of starring in the offshoot.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe project, from Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady and Zak Penn, had already been rumored to have three leads, two male and one female, so the announcement felt like the final answer on who the new series would be focused on: comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Sussman), geologist Bert Kibbler (Posehn) and Stuart\u2019s girlfriend Denise (Lapkus).<\/p>\n

\n\tThat changed four months later when fellow Big Bang supporting player John Ross Bowie<\/a> also inked a talent deal<\/a> with WBTV to reprise his role as prickly plasma physicist Barry Kripke.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs confirmed by photos from the first table read and marketing materials for the series \u2014 now titled Stuart Fails To Save the Universe<\/a> \u2014 it is a four-lead comedy built around Sussman as the title character. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat prompted the setup change, and how did Bowie\u2019s addition come about?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBill said, we need a Dr. Zachary Smith from Lost in Space, we need an antagonistic character, and Kripke is perfect for it,\u201d Penn said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t have to convince us, we were like, oh yeah, good point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDr. Smith is the antagonist sabotaging the intergalactic voyage of the Robinsons, a pioneering family of space colonists, on the classic 1960s sci-fi series Lost In Space.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJohn is a brilliant comic actor, and we had a rock solid cast of great comic actors, adding John as well,\u201d Lorre said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJohn Ross Bowie in \u2018Stuart Fails to Save the Universe\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHBO Max<\/p>\n

\n\tBowie admitted to feeling a little disappointed when Sussman, Posehn and Lapkus were revealed as the leads of the Big Bang spinoff but did not lose hope.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI saw the announcement \u2014 I think in your esteemed publication \u2014 that they were doing the show with the three of them, I allowed myself 36-48 hours of self-pity, and then figured, you know, they\u2019ll find something for me to do. I know all those guys, Kripke will come back in some form or another,\u201d Bowie said. \u201cSo I was beyond thrilled when they called me up and said, no, we\u2019ve actually kind of reconceived the show so that you\u2019re sort of the Dr. Smith from Lost in Space. And I was like, oh, I totally get that reference, I\u2019m all in, sign me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded Bowie, \u201cI was really, really excited to get to work with these guys, all of whom I\u2019ve known for years, long before the show even started. I met Brian right after I moved to L.A. in 2002, and I was already a fan of his work. So it\u2019s it\u2019s been really exciting to be part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPosehn was immediately on board too.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was so stoked for him when I found out that they added him, and then it also made total sense,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, well, yeah, what else were they gonna play off of? He\u2019s perfect for any comedy.\u201d (You can watch the video below.)<\/p>\n

\n\tStuart Fails to Save the Universe premieres on HBO Max on July 23 with episodes released weekly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first major development on HBO Max\u2018s long-gestating Big Bang Theory spinoff came in October 2024 when three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,1010,282563,142764,264476,240408,44061],"class_list":["post-770153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo-max","tag-john-ross-bowie","tag-kevin-sussman","tag-lauren-lapkus","tag-stuart-fails-to-save-the-universe","tag-the-big-bang-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}