Young Sheldon’s Iain Armitage explained why he was the “most happy” about the show coming to an end — while the rest of the cast was frustrated about Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik‘s cameos in the finale and the secret Georgie & Mandy spinoff.
Jessica Radloff‘s new tell-all book, Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy, featured an interview with Armitage, now 18, where he mentioned his mixed feelings about the show’s conclusion. “Looking back now, it’s nostalgic sad,” he said, “Like, I miss working at Warner Bros., I miss the crew and the people I love. I love the act of acting. I love doing it. It’s fun. But not really specific moments. More the overall thing.”
Iain’s mother, Lee Armitage, meanwhile, “wasn’t grieving” because she was looking forward to her son’s next chapter. She also hinted at “the drama at the end,” seemingly referring to the decision to end Young Sheldon in 2024.
After Young Sheldon was ordered for three more seasons in 2021, the writers realized that season 7 was bringing the show to its organic end. Sheldon, who was originally introduced in The Big Bang Theory, would now be in college away from the other characters. His dad, George Sr. (Lance Barber), also died during that timeframe.
“There was a different quality to the air, knowing that this was gonna be it. Annie [Potts] was very obviously pissed, vocally so, as she tends to be. I even felt guilty a bit to be less disappointed than others,” Barber, 53, explained. “And Iain was ready, too … to move on to something else, artistically, and maybe personally … with things that boiled up a little bit toward the end of the season. I think a lot of people felt there were certain elements of the show that they were ready to move on from.”
Iain admitted it was “heavy and annoying and weird” to be in a constant state of mourning, which is why he refused to “stay in that heaviness forever.”
“Plus, I wanted to be in Virginia. I wanted to be traveling, and I’m happy to do whatever movie comes up. And my mom has always imbued me with a very healthy sense of ephemerality, and the fact that nothing good can last and everything changes, and that’s a good thing,” he continued. “I would hate to be on a show playing 23-year-old Sheldon. That would suck. I wouldn’t want to do that. So it was a perfect time to end it.”
The child star recalled being “the most happy about the show ending,” noting he wasn’t “going home and crying all day” as opposed to his coworkers.
In the 2024 finale, Parsons, 53, and Bialik, 50, reprised their roles of Sheldon and Amy, respectively. Potts, 73, who played Sheldon’s grandmother, was “a little sad” about how Parsons returned as a “mean and unchanged” Sheldon.
“That broke my heart. It was like, ‘Really? Still no responsibility?’ It was just selfishness,” she recalled. “It’s just not how I wish to see Sheldon off into the world. … I thought the show could have ended [with young Sheldon] and not to the dreaded scene with Jim and Mayim as Sheldon and Amy revealing he was unchanged and unrepentant. That gave me a stomachache. It was like, ‘Who crashed our party?! Who invited you?'”
Elsewhere in the book, the cocreators explained how they ultimately made the decision to wrap up Young Sheldon — but they were also discussing a potential spinoff focused on Georgie (Montana Jordan) and Mandy (Emily Osment). They had to tell the Young Sheldon cast that their show was coming to an end before they could approach Jordan, 23, and Osment, 34, about returning for another series. The duo were asked not to tell their costars about the new show until their deals were done.
Tension emerged due to some important details being kept from the rest of the cast — and an “informal and impersonal” Zoom call revealing the cancellation. Potts, meanwhile, felt there was more story to tell even if Iain’s Sheldon wasn’t the focus.
Potts said she felt “devalued” after not being offered a series regular role in the spinoff. She later aired out her frustrations in an interview, blaming CBS for a decision made by the show’s writers, which she claimed she got a call about.
“We were told they were hoping some of the Sheldon family would pop by once in a while, but that is not a real or generous invitation, you know what I mean? Like, ‘Oh gosh, that sounds really great,'” she said before recalling her debut on Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage. “I feel a little bit like I’m a guest in my own house, and there’s no real place for me. I love to work, but it’s a very odd sensation.”
Iain, for his part, has yet to return in any capacity to the fictional franchise. The book confirmed that Iain declined the offer to appear in a Thanksgiving episode in the first season of Georgie & Mandy.
“I was just disappointed. We wanted this story to go forward for this family, and obviously Sheldon is a critical part of this family,” cocreator Chuck Lorre added. “The Thanksgiving episode that would have included him would have been wonderful to do, but their reasoning is understandable.”
Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy is out now.
