Break out your Bazinga merch, because Jim Parsons is stepping back into Sheldon Cooper’s shoes.
Parsons, 50, and Mayim Bialik will both reprise their Big Bang Theory roles of Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler, respectively, for the May 16 series finale of Young Sheldon on CBS.
Details of their appearances are being kept under wraps, but Big Bang fans will recall the two characters got married during the show’s 11th season in 2018 before the pair won the Nobel Prize in Physics in the sitcom’s 2019 series finale.
Young Sheldon, which premiered in 2017, is a prequel to The Big Bang Theory and charts the journey of child prodigy Cooper, played by Iain Armitage.
In addition to executive producing the show, Parsons has acted as the narrator on Young Sheldon across all of its seven seasons.
Bialik, 48, has also narrated two episodes of Young Sheldon, but the actors’ appearances in the finale will mark the first time their characters have been seen onscreen since the end of Big Bang.
In April 2018, Parsons refused to renew his contract on the show, effectively bringing the long-running series to an abrupt end.
Parsons won a total of four Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance, and Big Bang was nominated four times for Outstanding Comedy Series.
In the time since, Parsons has appeared in movies including 2020’s The Boys in the Band and 2022’s Spoiler Alert. He also earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Henry Wilson in the Ryan Murphy–created limited series Hollywood.
After The Big Bang Theory, Bialik, who earned four Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Amy, became best known for cohosting Jeopardy! alongside Ken Jennings following the 2020 death of longtime host Alex Trebek.
In July 2022, Bialik and Jennings, 49, were announced as the game show’s permanent hosts, but Bialik was later fired from the show in December 2023, leaving the show solely in Jennings’ hands.
The return of both Parsons and Bialik could just be the appetizer for Big Bang Theory fans, as it was revealed in April 2023 that streamer Max and the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre, were working on a new series set in the same world as the beloved show. No other details have since been made available.
The original incarnation of The Big Bang Theory — which also starred Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar — ran for 12 seasons and a total of 279 episodes on CBS from 2007 to 2019.
