Hollywood's Newest Inspiration: Just Doing 'Quantum Leap' Apparently

Anyone who grew up in the 1980s remembers Quantum Leap; the NBC science fiction drama about Dr. Sam Beckett, a scientist who “leaps” into the past to right historic injustices by occupying other people’s bodies -- which frequently required him to seduce strangers who thought he was someone else entirely. Kind of gross, Sam. Also, along for the ride was his sassy holographic friend Al, who always smoked cigars and basically had a smartphone made out of Lego which, we assure you, all made sense in the ‘80s.

Despite the fact that no one outside of Scott Bakula’s Fan Club regularly talks much about Quantum Leap anymore, it seems like more and more movies and TV shows are taking inspiration from the classic series. In last year’s Wonder Woman 1984, for example, instead of just having Steve Trevor magically zap into the present day, he basically reverse-Quantum Leaps into some random schmo’s body. The movie even had their own version of Quantum Leap’s trademark “hey, that’s some other dude in the mirror” shot.

Then, just this week, we got the first trailer for Edgar Wright’s upcoming Last Night in Soho, which appears to be a highly stylized movie about a young woman whose consciousness travels back in time to inhabit the body of a singer in the 1960s. It basically looks like a horror version of Quantum Leap made by a young, coked-up Brian DePalma.

And there have been rumors that the new Loki show (potential SPOILERS) will find the trickster “popping up throughout various times in history as an unlikely influencer,” which certainly sounds Quantum Leap-esque. So maybe all of this means that we’ll finally get that Quantum Leap reboot. Which would be especially nice seeing as the original show’s ending was a huge bummer. 

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Top Image: Marvel Studios, Focus Features