SPOILER ALERT:\u00a0The story includes details about Episode 3 of HBO Max\u2019s\u00a0Stuart Fails To Save the Universe.<\/p>\n
Three episodes in, Stuart Fails To Save the Universe has brought back seven actors from the original show in addition to the spinoff\u2019s leading quartet of Stuart (Kevin Sussman), Brian Posehn (Bert), Lauren Lapkus (Denise) and John Ross Bowie (Kripke), and has killed off two OG characters in two different universes.<\/p>\n
First, it was Kunal Nayyar\u2019s opening episode who was shot dead by Kripke. In Episode 3, it is Wil Wheaton, killed with magic by another Stuart Fails To Save the Universe lead character, Bert.<\/p>\n
Set in a world where magic is real and where, per the opening credits spoiler, \u201cBert is magic,\u201d Wheaton is a representative of the Wizards Guild of America. He comes after Stuart for unwittingly enabling Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) to resume her demon form after she had been expelled from the guild and stripped of her magic powers. (You can read about Rauch\u2019s return and Bernadette\u2019s beef with the WGA here.)<\/p>\n
Bert shields Stuart from Wil\u2019s deadly fireball, which leads to a magic fight to the death between the two that destroys most of the comic book shop and ends with Wil\u2019s demise. (You can watch most of the scene below.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when the script was sent to me, and I was reading through it and not getting most of it because I hadn\u2019t seen anything else,\u201d Wheaton told Deadline. \u201cWe get to the magic shop, and I knew that I was going to be a wizard because I\u2019d had a costume fitting, but I didn\u2019t know anything about what it was going to be. What I see in the script is Wil Wheaton and Bert have an epic fireball fight, and I took a picture of it and I texted that picture to Bill and I just said \u2018thank you.'\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheaton spoke about the logistics of filming the fight, in which the Star Trek: The Next Generation alum also got to flash the Vulcan salute.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had so much fun. Tom [Mahoney], the visual effects supervisor, and Brian and I really went through blocking and coordinating this entire fight sequence, and it was about like, well, how do you tease the fireball up in your hand, and how do you shape the fireballs in your hand?,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd for a particular kind of nerd, it\u2019s a really big deal to be a wizard throwing a fireball, and to see that, like, I look so much cooler than I\u2019ve ever looked ever in my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheaton revealed an Easter egg he had asked the show\u2019s costume designer Valerie Klarich to incorporate into his costume \u2014 which she did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe character that I play in Felicia Day\u2019s series, The Guild, is Fawkes, he\u2019s the leader of their rival guild. Felicia and I wrote a comic book together about him, and on the cover, there\u2019s this really cool artwork that is Fawkes in a wizard\u2019s robe with all these glowing runes on it. So Val said, \u2018Do you have any requests for your costume?\u2019 And I said, \u2018If you could put some runes down the sides of the cloak, that would be really cool.\u2019 And she said, \u2018Yeah, we know a 3D printing guy who prints on fabric.\u2019 So I got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shared his reaction to the Fawkes-inspired cloak.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw that, I was just like, there\u2019s this great moment in Almost Famous where Lester Bangs says to the kid, \u2018Oh no, they made you feel cool, and you\u2019re not cool, so you\u2019re trapped. They made me feel cool, and I\u2019m not cool, and I was like, \u2018This is an entirely fine place to be trapped.'\u201d<\/p>\n
Posehn spoke of the cool and dark side of Episode 3 where Bert can do magic but he also is almost burnt at the stake for being a scientist.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople here think science is evil,\u201d Kripke said about the magic-ruled alternate reality, to which Stuart responds in a rare topical comment on the show, \u201cHow is this different from our world?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a funny episode, and then also that we play off it, where somebody goes, \u2018In this world, science is forbidden,\u2019 and Stuart goes, \u2018Isn\u2019t that kind of like our world?\u2019 That joke I loved,\u201d Posehn said. \u201cBut getting to be burned at a stake as a metalhead \u2014 it wasn\u2019t a bucket list thing but getting to do it was super fun.\u201d<\/p>\n