Wil Wheaton

Wil Wheaton, born Richard William Wheaton III on July 29, 1972,, first gained international attention by starring in the film  (1986). He then played on the television series  (1987) for three and one-quarter seasons.

Playing himself in The Big Bang Theory, Wil serves as a minor, but pivotal in the third season and is generally portrayed as a darker version of himself in earlier seasons. After making peace with Sheldon in the fifth season, he has become friends with the main characters of the show.

Season 3


He first appeared in "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" as he enters the Mystic Warlords of Ka'a tournament with Stuart and playing against Sheldon and Raj. Sheldon only joined because he wanted to confront him over an incident of the past: a young 15 year old Sheldon was devastated when Wheaton failed to show up at the '95 Dixie Trek convention in  (it is later revealed in "The Russian Rocket Reaction" that Wil attended  instead). In the final match, Sheldon is about to defeat his hated rival, but Wheaton tricks him once more by telling Sheldon his grandmother had died shortly before the convention and prevails. It is revealed that this ruse was a scam to win and upon losing, Sheldon tenses up and screams angrily, "WHEATON!" just as yelled "Khan!!".

Wil Wheaton reappears in the episode "The Wheaton Recurrence" where he has two bowling matches against the main characters. He replaces Albino Bob as a member in Stuart's bowling team. In the second match, Sheldon names his team 'The Wesley Crushers', thinking it a clever pun implying that they will crush Wesley Crusher, who was Wheaton's character in Star Trek. However most interpret the name meaning the team are Wesley Crusher's fans. Wheaton breaks up Leonard and Penny's relationship in order to win a bowling competition, as Leonard and Penny were already having issues because of Leonard's premature "I love you". Sheldon, Leonard, Raj and Howard dress as super-heroines and super-villainesses and go to the comic book store for losing the match.

Season 4
Wheaton appears again on "The 21-Second Excitation", Sheldon and his friends get in a long line to enter the cinema, then Wheaton comes with Lonely Larry and Captain Sweatpants and enters the cinema without doing the line because of his celebrity status, causing Sheldon and friends to not be able to enter the movies. Sheldon then steals the movie from the projection booth and the gang gets chased by him and the movie goers.

Season 5
In "The Russian Rocket Reaction", Wheaton invites Leonard and Sheldon to a party at his house. Leonard intends to go with Raj and Howard (until he tells everyone that he got offered to go into space), leaving Sheldon feeling betrayed. However, he has a change of heart when he finds out that will be attending. At the party, Wheaton gives Sheldon the gift that he had always been waiting for, a signed, mint-condition Wesley Crusher action figure, saying, "To Sheldon, sorry it took so long. Your friend, Wil Wheaton." Sheldon immediately forgives him and gives him a hug. However, Brent Spiner comes along and sees the action figure. He opens it. Sheldon then announces that Spiner is now his mortal enemy instead of Wheaton.

Wil Wheaton appeared again in "The Stag Convergence" as a guest at Howard's bachelor party. He almost ruins (albeit inadvertently) Howard and Bernadette's relationship when he records Raj's drunken toast (which reveals embarrassing details of Howard's sordid sexual past) and posts it on, where it's viewed by Bernadette. She nearly calls off the wedding until Howard makes an emotional plea, saying that he's no longer that person and that it's all because of her, and she forgives him (even though she's still mad at him for not telling her about his past).



Season 6
In the episode "The Habitation Configuration", we see the front of Wil Wheaton's fictional home. The house number is 1701 which is an obvious reference to his time spent on Star Trek: the Next Generation with the USS Enterprise's registry number being. Wil agrees to appear on a Star Trek episode of "Sheldon Cooper presents Fun with Flags". Amy is filming it and gets into an argument with Sheldon. Confused he takes Wil's side which makes Amy mad. After getting drunk, he shows up at Wil's house to defend Amy's honor and Wil apologizes.

Season 7


When Penny has trouble getting her acting career started, she and Leonard consult Wil. He warns them about how depressing it can be to take on projects one knows will be bad (repeatedly correcting Penny when she thinks he is referencing Star Trek). He ends up in a malaise, but is snapped out of it when he finds himself in the TV-guide crossword. Later, after Penny accepts the part in Serial Ape-ist 2, she is surprised to discover Wil is also working on the film, as a mad orangutan (in a full body suit, so as not to be identifiable). Wil seems excited by this development.



Wil Wheaton is also playing Penny's boyfriend in the movie and the scientist who impregnated Penny with the killer gorilla DNA that is slowly transforming her. When Penny asks for another take and the director refuses, they both get fired. While commiserating at a bar, Wil tells Penny that is the craft and art that should be important to her and not some terrible movie. He then gets an audition call for another potentially bad movie and leaves them.

Appearances

 * S03E05: The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary
 * S03E19: The Wheaton Recurrence
 * S04E08: The 21-Second Excitation
 * S05E05: The Russian Rocket Reaction
 * S05E22: The Stag Convergence
 * S06E07: The Habitation Configuration
 * S07E10: The Discovery Dissipation
 * S07E19: The Indecision Amalgamation
 * S07E23: The Gorilla Dissolution

Trivia

 * Wil Wheaton really does live in Pasadena, California.
 * While guest starring on an episode of "Fun with Flags", Wheaton's T-shirt bears the title card from The Guild, a web-series he guest starred on during the third and fourth seasons.
 * In "The Indecision Amalgamation", Wil appears for the first time without running into Sheldon. He's having coffee with Leonard and Penny.
 * Wil and Penny work together in Serial Ape-ist 2.
 * Wil can speak, as he was able to understand Sheldon's threat perfectly during the Mystic Warlords of Ka'a Tournament.
 * Will has appeared as himself more than anyone else as themselves.