The Quantum Leap Showrunners are teasing a potential third season of the NBC show

Jordyn Althouse/NBC

Spoiler alert! This story contains plot points from Tuesday's season finale Quantum leap On NBC.

The two-part finale of NBC's reboot of the popular '90s sci-fi drama is wrapped up in a tidy, classy way — which means it could It will serve as a finale for the series if the drama does not get a chance for a third season.

Here, showrunners Martin Gero and Dean Georgaris talk about how long they've been planning for this to happen at the end of Season 2, along with why it's so important to showcase the huge Butterfly Effect, and what fans can expect if the series gets produced for Season 3.

DEADLINE It feels like you designed this to be a series finale. Was that the plan?

Dean Georgaris Interestingly enough, we didn't actually make it a series finale. Ben's truth [Raymond Lee] And Edison [Caitlin Bassett] Being in the same physical space can feel like a completion, of sorts, of the first part of their journey. But what we wanted to do for Season 2 was tell a really emotional story with this amazing crew that we had. And the way we did that was to divide Ben and Addison emotionally, to break them up. When we got the early renewal for Season 2, we knew we weren't going to end it on a cliffhanger. We were going to end it in the first scene of Season 3, and we were going to end it with the two characters together, but in a way that you would never expect. This kind of says to the audience, “Look at all the great places we can go.” So, if it sounds like a completion to the fans, that's great. It's part of the journey, but I think for us it's a starting point for the rest of the journey.

Delivery time Quantum leap It is considered a bubble display. What does it feel like to sit on the bubble?

Jiro I mean, look, I've never been on a show that wasn't on the bubble unless it was picked up a week after it aired. The business is constantly changing, and no matter how many episodes we've taken in our careers between us, it feels like we're making it work. Those things are out of our control. What we can control is the supply. What we can control is how the audience feels. We are ready and eager to do more.

Georgaris The new reality we've all become accustomed to is that it's not just about one assessment anymore. It's not just about one number. There are multiple platforms. So the truth is that I think every presenter and every show creator lives a bubble life for the most part. This just comes with it. that's good. As Martin said, that's not really our job. Our mission is to entertain while we can.

Deadline When did you draft these final texts? Was this before or after the strike?

Martin Giroux It was after the raid, but we built everything up. We started breaking down the offer in December [of 2022]One of the first things we do is always talk about what the end is. We had already written the first eight episodes and had outlines for episodes nine and ten [before they went out on strike]. So when the strike was over, it wasn't like, “Okay, what are we going to do?” It was just a matter of being able to complete this plan that we had put in place in late 2022.

DEADLINE So why did you feel like you wanted to change anything once the strike was over?

Jiro No, we were very lucky. I mean, we really had a vision. It's flattering that you say this might feel like a finale in some ways because for us, every season should feel like a book in a series of novels that you really love. We never want the show to feel like a mediocrity. We want these seasons to have a beginning, middle, and end. But to do it in a truly satisfying way, you have to lay the groundwork for those early episodes. So, once we've established that foundation, it's clear that things have a lot of room to wiggle and move and lean toward strengths and weaknesses. But we always knew this would be the end.

DEADLINE So there wasn't an alternate episode that you explored or anything else that you shot that you didn't use?

Georgaris Nothing like that. We built a story that we knew we could tell in 13 episodes. We didn't know how the strike would affect our system, but we knew we had a complete story and we were shockingly loyal to it.

DEADLINE: You rely on a lot of exposition in your stories so people can follow them. Has this always been a first job for you guys?

Jiro Yes, we always want a low level of entry for anyone. Wherever you want to start watching the show, we'll help you. The great thing about Quantum Leap, even the old version and the new version, is that it's closed-loop storytelling. It's almost like an anthology TV show that happens to have a serialized aspect. Obviously this new incarnation has a slightly more serialized version, but jumps are jumps. The jumps are just great episodes of television, and they're completely different from week to week. And so we know that a large portion of our audience is watching each episode in order, but we also have a large portion of the audience that says, “Oh, yeah, right.” The quantum leap has begun, and I will be back this week.

DEADLINE Where do Addison and Ben end up?

Jiro It's a bit of a mystery, but I think for us it's a bit like Europe, World War II.

Deadline asked about the butterfly effect we saw at the end. Was there one this big in previous episodes?

Jiro This one is huge, yes.

Georgaris The two things we've been saving up to do are do the butterfly effect in a meaningful way, and watch our characters we care about come back to life or change. The other was we wanted Jeffery, who was the worst we had in our season, Gideon [James Frain], to experience how powerful it is to be a jumper. In other words, young Jeffrey helps Ben save a life, and this changes Jeffrey. This, after all, has been the DNA of the show since the beginning. It's a show fundamentally about hope, about the profound ripple effect of small acts of kindness. We want to see a character affected by the fact that doing good for the world is deeply satisfying.

Deadline Have you already premiered season 3 on NBC?

Jiro We didn't do a long show. They definitely know what it's like, and they signed up for the little epilogue moment with Ben and Addison, so they know where we're going. But no, we didn't do our big song and dance.

DEADLINE Do you have your song and dance ready to go?

Jiro Oh, sure. We have been thinking about this since the strike ended and once we finished the number of episodes, we started thinking and working on the third season.

Deadline So, if there is another season, will we see Ben and Addison traveling together?

Jiro Yes. We don't want to get too deep into it, but sure. That is the intended beginning.