Wil Wheaton

Wil Wheaton, born Richard William Wheaton III on July 29, 1972, Burbank, California, first gained international attention by starring in the Rob Reiner film Stand By Me (1986). He then played Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) for three and one-quarter seasons.

Wheaton is married to Anne Price and lives in Arcadia, California with her and her two sons from a previous relationship. Wheaton is an aficionado of computers, the Internet and technology in general. He says he is drawn to alternatives like Linux because he is left-handed, brewing his own beer at home, the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Playing himself in The Big Bang Theory, Wil serves as a minor, but pivotal antagonist 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 Wesley Crusher failed to show up at the '95 Dixie Trek convention in Jackson, Mississippi (it is later revealed in "The Russian Rocket Reaction" that Wil attended Hollywood Squares 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 James T. Kirk 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 Brent "Data" Spiner 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 NCC-1701-D. 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.

Season 8
Wil and Penny set up a podcast to talk about their movie Serial Ape-ist 2, with Leonard joining them in her apartment with them as they talk. Eventually actor/director Kevin Smith calls and offers Penny a role in his next movie, Clerks 3. While Penny is interested in going back to acting (a job she had previously shelved to be a pharmaceutical salesperson) Leonard is concerned she will just be disappointed. Wil takes delight in watching them argue, deliberately keeping them on the air. When the two resolve for Penny to take a shot at the role, Wil points out to a dubious Leonard that Penny tricked him into agreeing to let her try out.

Season 9
In "The Spock Resonance", Wil introduces Adam Nimoy to Sheldon. Adam conducts an interview with Sheldon about what the work of his father, Leonard Nimoy, as Spock mint to him. Showing off one of his prized possessions, the napkin upon which Leonard Nimoy wiped his mouth, and was a Christmas present to him by Penny in season 2, "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis", Sheldon also showed off the engagement ring that he intended to give Amy.

In "The Opening Night Excitation", when Sheldon decided to spend the evening with Amy on her birthday instead, Wil is the recipient of Sheldon's Star Wars movie tickets.

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
 * S08E20: The Fortification Implementation
 * S09E07: The Spock Resonance

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 Klingon, 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.
 * Wil is returning in S09E07
 * The only female characters in the gang that Wil did not meet to have a physical appearance with were Bernadette and Emily.