Stuart Fails To Save The Universe Trailer: This Big Bang Theory Spin-Off Looks ... Good, Actually

The first non-prequel spin-off of "The Big Bang Theory," titled "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe," just got a release date and trailer. Also, it looks ... good?!

I'm just as surprised as anybody else. As the resident expert on "The Big Bang Theory" here at /Film who, admittedly, doesn't care for the show all that much (I hate Sheldon Cooper almost as much as I hate laugh tracks), I girded my loins when I heard we were getting a spin-off centered around comic book store owner Stuart Bloom, played on the original show by Kevin Sussman. After "Young Sheldon" and "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage" both decided to focus on the years before we meet Jim Parsons' Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory," "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" seems, from its first trailer, to be unstuck in time while also serving as a sort of sequel to the original series. That, in my estimation, is a good thing.

We've known about "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" as a concept since March of 2025, and I've been pretty curious about what this series would look like ever since, particularly because "Young Sheldon" and "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage" feel completely distinct from one another. (The former loses the laugh track and gives the characters more depth and interiority, whereas the latter is just ... laugh tracked slop.) I have to say that, after seeing the first trailer, I'm actually quite optimistic about where "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" could go, and how it could change the "Big Bang" Extended Universe, or the BBEU, for the better.

Let me get one big thing out of the way. All previous "Big Bang Theory" properties have aired on CBS, even though "The Big Bang Theory" and "Young Sheldon" both stream on HBO Max. The fact that "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" is an HBO Max original makes a huge difference here, because people like HBO's head of content Casey Bloys seem, to me, to be fairly discerning. They're not going to offer that aforementioned laugh track slop to their subscribers; they're going to put their reputation and weight behind something that critics and audiences might actually like. But let's get into the specifics of the trailer, which, again, looks good!

The premise here is, pretty clearly, that we'll see Stuarts — and Bert Kibblers, Denises, and Barry Kripkes, played by returning "Big Bang Theory" players Brian Posehn, Lauren Lapkus, and John Ross Bowie — across multiple dimensions, some of which seem relatively unsafe. (The very first thing we see seems to depict Bert and Stuart dealing with some sort of zombie apocalypse, only for them to greet a uniformed Barry Kripke, who they're told is their leader.) The trailer looks stylized in a genuinely interesting way, though, and to that point, it looks like a funny, clever showcase for four particularly talented performers who never got top billing on "The Big Bang Theory." (We do see, incidentally, Sheldon, Johnny Galecki's Leonard Hofstadter, and Simon Helberg's Howard Wolowitz ... in a comic book, which is pretty smart.) All in all, this looks like a huge leap forward for this franchise — creatively, I mean.

To state the obvious: No matter what, people were always going to watch "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe." "The Big Bang Theory" is still one of the most popular sitcoms in the entire world, and it's clear that this entire franchise has staying power, considering that "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage" has also proven to be a resounding success for CBS. Still, the cool thing about "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe," at least from my perspective — the perspective of someone who has engaged with every property in the "Big Bang" Extended Cinematic Universe — is that it seems to be shifting the tone and taking this already popular franchise in a new direction.

That new direction (and forgive me if I sound optimistic) seems to be that fans of "The Big Bang Theory" might have a little bit more to chew on with "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe." I'm not saying "The Big Bang Theory" babied its audience, but one of its spin-offs, "Georgie & Mandy," definitely does; thanks to the laugh track and over-explained jokes, you don't really have to think when you're watching that half-hour sitcom. "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" looks like a comparatively audacious entry into this cinematic universe, and we'll have to see if that's true when it premieres on HBO Max on July 23, 2026.

As for "The Big Bang Theory," that's also streaming on HBO Max now.