[Spoiler alert] Stuart fails to save the universe. Ok, that’s not really a spoiler. It’s right there in the title.

Actually, in the trailer for Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, a Chuck Lorre-produced spinoff of his insanely successful 3-camera sitcom The Big Bang Theory, minor TBBT character Stuart has only begun to try to save the universe, which is in dire need of rescue after a plot contrivance turns the predictable world of a comedy shot in front of a live studio audience into an apocalyptic hellscape.

Marketing Department flaks at HBO Max, which is running the explain thusly: “Comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) is tasked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon. Stuart is aided in this quest by his girlfriend Denise (Lauren Lapkus), geologist friend Bert (Brian Posehn), and quantum physicist/all-around pain in the ass Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie). Along the way, they meet alternate-universe versions of characters we’ve come to know and love from The Big Bang Theory. As the title implies, things don’t go well.”

In the trailer, we see Stuart and Bert surveying their new normal – the aforementioned hellscape – when a wormhole opens and another version of Stuart jumps through to tell them that things aren’t supposed to be this way. But with Stuart’s help, the universe can be restored to when giant moths didn’t crash into store windows and Terminator-style androids weren’t going around lasering people.

The show, which isn’t airing on CBS, has a markedly different tone than its predecessor, and in fact more closely resembles other HBO Max fare like The Last of Us – still apocalyptical, but with a bit more comedy. The show will also deal with sci-fi tropes like alternate universes, wormholes, interdimensional travel and quantum loopholes

Big Bang Theory regulars Sheldon (Jim Parsons), Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Howard (Simon Helberg) only appear in the Stuart Fails trailer as comic book characters illustrating an important clue as to how things went haywire but haven’t been definitively ruled out as appearing in any other capacity. Chuck Lorre created, directed and wrote Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, which he co-executive produces with Bill Prady and Zak Penn.

HBO Max and HBO will debut Stuart Fails to Save the Universe on July 23rd.