Though Kaley Cuoco’s Penny doesn’t meet the same ghastly fate as Kunal Nayyar’s post-apocalyptic Raj in Episode 1, one can safely presume that she — like Zack — was eventually struck down by the AI regime. But because this isn’t our Penny from the 12-season run of “The Big Bang Theory,” we were more interested in asking the powers that be why she, specifically, was chosen to lead the resistance. Was it simply because she’s the last person you’d expect to wage war against the machines?
“You got it,” Chuck Lorre tells TVLine in the video interview above. “The fun of this series is the unlikely character assuming a new role.”
That said, fellow co-creator Bill Prady argued that Penny is perhaps the character best suited to lead a guerrilla army.
“Penny was always the most capable member of the original group,” he says. “If you had to actually get something done, you were probably better off if Penny was in charge of it.”
Adds Lorre: “There was always that Nebraska, get-the-job-done quality to her.”
But what about lovable dolt Zack? What’s his deal — and who would make him second-in-command of a resistance? Prady admits, “That Zack comes along as her lieutenant just made us laugh.”
Colin Remas Brown/HBO Max
While Penny’s promotion to resistance leader represented a major departure for the character, getting Cuoco back on set felt remarkably familiar for her former co-stars.
John Ross Bowie, for one, found himself right at home in Kripke’s familiar dynamic with Penny. Asked whether he was surprised by just how much Barry seemed to enjoy getting slapped around by Penny, the actor laughs: “I do lean into the perv in every episode. But there is that moment where it was kind of fun because Kaley comes over, she smacks me, and they were like, ‘Okay, do three in a row.’ She hits me three times, and we just started laughing because I was pretending to enjoy it more and more. And she was like, ‘Aw, it’s just like old times. Look at Barry being inappropriate with Penny.'”
“I have been inappropriate with that actress since 2009,” Bowie points out, referring to his Season 2 introduction on “Big Bang.” “We have a legacy together of me being inappropriate with Kaley, and so I was not at all surprised [to see Kripke enjoy getting slapped by Penny].”
Kevin Sussman, meanwhile, admits that getting slapped by Cuoco wasn’t exactly a hardship. “I mean, I’m not going to lie: Getting slapped around by Penny was quite, quite fun,” he says, before Lauren Lapkus interjects: “It was probably one of Stuart’s dreams! But I love that scene. Kaley is so badass, and it was so fun to work with her again.”
