NBC's 'Quantum Leap' revival calls on 'Ghostbusters' alum Ernie Hudson for key role in new series

When there's something strange in your timeline, who ya gonna call?

An OG member of the Ghostbusters crew is making his way into the world of Quantum Leap. Per Deadline, NBC's upcoming reboot of the classic sci-fi series has tapped Ernie Hudson, best known for portraying Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters film franchise (he recently reprised the spirit-fighting hero in Jason Reitman's Afterlife), for a key role in the pilot episode.

This is the second bit of major casting news in the last few days after Raymond Lee was cast to lead the revival as Dr. Ben Seong last Friday. Hudson is set to play Herbert “Magic” Williams, a Vietnam War vet and seasoned leader of the Quantum Leap time travel project. "Using a bit of politicking and his military know-how to keep the Pentagon at bay, Magic buys the team some time to rescue Ben, but expects answers once he’s back," reads the synopsis of the character provided by Deadline.

Serving as a pseudo follow-up to the original show from the 1990s, the new Quantum Leap takes place 30 years later and follows a team of scientists hoping to understand the temporal secrets once cracked by the brilliant Dr. Samuel Beckett (Scott Bakula). Of course, we expect Seong to end up on a whirlwind adventure through time, righting all sorts of wrongs and switching between different personalities throughout history as he attempts to make the jump back to his own time period.

Original Quantum Leap creator, Donald P. Bellisario, is executive producing the reboot, which hails from the creative duo of Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt (co-creators of God Friended Me and current producers on La Brea). Deborah Pratt — who wrote, produced, and narrated for the Bakula-fronted iteration of the series — is also on board as an executive produce alongside Blindspot creator, Martin Gero, and Helen Shaver (The Lord Word). Shaver will also direct the pilot.

"This show is really special. Can’t wait for you to see it!" wrote Gero, sharing the news of Hudson's involvement on his Instagram page.

While Bakula has not been asked to step back into the shoes of Sam Beckett, Deadline did report several weeks ago that the actor "is aware of the reboot and has had conversations about potentially getting involved." As we said last week, it would really bring things full circle if Beckett was written into the story as the Al Calavicci-type mentor/friend to Lee's Ben Seong. Keep the legacy of Dean Stockwell alive!

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