Stuart Fails To Save The Universe: The Big Bang Theory's Raj Koothrappali Returns, Meets With SHOCKING Fate

After

Young Sheldon and Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, it's the turn of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe to take centre stage. Unlike the first two spinoffs from The Big Bang Theory, no members of the Cooper family appear as yet. Created by Chuck Lorre, Zak Penn and Bill Prady, the new comedy series focuses on the supporting character of Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman), the comic book store owner, who has the weight of the world on him. Lauren Lapkus, Brian Posehn and John Ross Bowie also reprise their roles from the original series, but the premiere episode sees the return of a main member of the cast of the CBS show, as Kunal Nayyar is back as Raj Koothrappali. Warning: Spoilers ahead!

How does Raj Koothrappali return in Stuart Fails to Save the Universe?

The premiere episode of the spinoff series reveals that Pasadena has been plunged into a post-apocalypse, where Stuart (Kevin Sussman) and Bert (Brian Posehn) are met with a Stuart from an alternate reality. He tells them to fix the quantum interference machine built by Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) at Cal Tech and, well, save the universe. The duo travel to the transformed university, which has now been taken over by Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie), aka the Great Khalif of South Pasadena.

Denise (Lauren Lapkus) joins them, and they discover that Kripke has been holding someone hostage. Raj (Nayyar) is almost unrecognisable with a long beard and hair. He has been trapped there for years, working on a way to escape. The trio ask for his help and almost reach the machine to undo the damage when Kripke shoots Raj. Yes, that's right. They killed Raj in the first episode. While it is a bit of a shocker, the makers have pointed out that the comedy series exists in a multiverse. Actor Bowie told Deadline in an interview that he wanted to know how viewers would react to the shocking death. He shared, "I would be very curious as to how America reacts to that, I gotta say,” he said. “It moves the plot forward, and in the very next episode, he makes the point that maybe that universe doesn’t exist anymore, in which case, I did not kill Raj, or I killed one of an infinite number of Rajes, so it is after all a ‘wounding ewwow [error]’ — which is harder to say than it sounds.”

More about Stuart Fails to Save the Universe

The creators have also promised that more minor characters from the Big Bang Theory family will be popping up in the ten-part series. A new episode of HBO Max's Stuart Fails to Save the Universe will be released every Friday until the finale on September 24 on JioHotstar.