Iain Armitage as Sheldon in YOUNG SHELDON – SEASON 7 – “An Ankle Monitor and a Big Plastic Crap House” | ©2024 CBS / Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. / Bill Inoshita

CBS’s half-hour comedy YOUNG SHELDON, the prequel spinoff of CBS’s gargantuan fourteen-season hit half-hour comedy THE BIG BANG THEORY, will wrap up its seven-season run with double episodes on Thursday, May 9, and Thursday, May 16, available thereafter on Paramount+.

YOUNG SHELDON has followed the boyhood and teen adventures of genius Sheldon Cooper, played on this series by Iain Armitage. Sheldon was played on THE BIG BANG THEORY by Jim Parsons, who narrates YOUNG SHELDON, is one of the show’s executive producers, and is slated to guest as the adult Sheldon on the series finale.

Fans of the franchise may take solace in knowing that YOUNG SHELDON is getting its own spinoff, focusing on the characters of Sheldon’s older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan) and his new bride Mandy (Emily Osment).

When Warner Bros. Television invites the Winter 2024 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour to visit the YOUNG SHELDON set, there is a Q&A panel with the cast and creative personnel, including creators Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro.

After this, Armitage makes himself available for some follow-up conversation. Originally from Georgia, Armitage has costarred in the two-season run of the HBO limited series BIG LITTLE LIES, played another younger version (“Youngest Brian”) of a shared-role character in the 2017 feature THE GLASS CASTLE, and voiced an animated puppy in 2021’s PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE.

YOUNG SHELDON – Season 7 Key Art | ©2024 CBS / Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Armitage relates how he and his colleagues learned that this was going to be the last season of YOUNG SHELDON. “I was in Virginia, and we had a Zoom call where everyone was going to be on, and it just seemed a little bit odd, because we usually had a new season announcement when we were on the stage. We figured that [announcement] would probably be when we got back to California. But [the finale notice] came suddenly. We kind of thought this might be it. And I feel very lucky and very happy that we get such a nice and gentle closing, and we get to really wrap this up the way it should be, and our writers are so incredible, and they know exactly what they’re doing. I know they’re going to handle this well.”

Has Armitage discussed the end of YOUNG SHELDON with Parsons?

“Not yet. I don’t believe he was on that Zoom. At least, if he was, he didn’t make himself known. But I plan to see him back in New York. I plan to be doing a lot of traveling on our final hiatus here. It’ll be interesting to talk with him, because I think he’ll have an interesting perspective that I think no one else in the world can have. He is ‘The’ Sheldon.”

Given how successful Armitage has been at capturing the essence of Parsons’s performance as Sheldon, does he foresee playing a younger version of Parsons character in anything else?

“Gosh. I would love to so much. That would be very fun. To piggyback on what somebody else asked me earlier about feeling associated with the character forever, I would want to be associated with Jim Parsons forever. He’s incredible. I’d be honored.”

When YOUNG SHELDON had wrapped its second season, Armitage was called back to reprise his character of Ziggy Chapman in BIG LITTLE LIES. This came as a surprise, as BIG LITTLE LIES, adapted from the novel by Liane Moriarty, was not expected to have a second season, and the first had been made two years earlier. How did Armitage handle returning to a character he’d been away from for so long, knowing he was going to have to return to a different character when YOUNG SHELDON resumed production?

“It’s weird,” Armitage replies, “because [Ziggy] was a role I had originally done when I was six or seven. So, I rewatched some of our old episodes, and it was the first time that I really had to get back into a character. I was like, ‘This is odd.’ Especially between acting jobs. This was of course during the hiatus in the summer from SHELDON, but it was certainly weird, but I had so much fun doing it, and I hope I’ll get to do it again soon.”

Iain Armitage is Sheldon and Annie Potts is Meemaw in YOUNG SHELDON – Season 1 – “A Sneeze, Detention, and Sissy Spacek” | ©2017 © 2017 WBEI/Darren Michaels

Armitage has spent almost half his life playing young Sheldon Cooper. Does he have a different relationship with the character, the work, and/or the attention from being on a hit show than he did when he began?

“Less jokes go over my head, I guess,” Armitage quips with a laugh. “No, I think the main thing for me, at least, I have just as much now, if not more, than I had when I was seven or eight or nine. And I always have had so much fun doing this. So, getting to be here and getting to do interviews or getting to act or getting to be on the show or whatever has always been so much fun for me, and so exciting. So, I feel very grateful, above anything else.”

Armitage notes that he knows someone who is something of a real-world young Sheldon. “My best friend, he’s fifteen years old as well, and he graduated college almost three years ago. He has his Master’s degree in physics, and he’s getting his PhD in two years. So, he’s a real-life genius.”

Does Armitage know what he may be doing next? “I’m not really sure. After this, I hopefully have a movie lined up, but we’ll see what happens with that, and then I’ve heard talks of a Part Three of a certain project in the works, but I think for the most part, I’d really just love to continue my studies and schooling, I want to travel a whole bunch, and then if anything acting-wise comes along my way, I’d be very grateful and very happy. I do want to go to college, but I think after that, I’d love to continue acting. It’s been pretty fun so far. If they’ll still have me.”

Might Armitage appear as Sheldon on the spinoff at some point? “I would love to. I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen, but they’re such incredible writers, and they’re so kind, so if they throw me a little two- or three-episode arc, I’d be very grateful. Maybe like a Thanksgiving trip back from Caltech.”

Since Caltech is in reality just a few miles up the freeway from Warner Bros. Studios, might the show film there? “Hey, we are in town,” Armitage points out. “So, I feel like if we do, it would be a good opportunity, because we’re already here. It’s a short flight,” he laughs.

Alas, the production didn’t really film in Germany when Sheldon’s character was there, Armitage reveals. “I have been to Germany before. We were in Berlin; I want to go to Heidelburg so bad. I’ve heard it’s beautiful. We did not get to go there to film, but they sure faked it well. We had a couple fun sets on the Warner Brothers lot, around campus, that we’ve filmed at. And then, a lot of times, we’ve built on our stages, our incredible construction team. But yeah, we didn’t get to go to Heidelburg. Which I’m still mad about,” he laughs.

Given Sheldon’s wide-ranging studies, has Armitage learned anything over the course of the show that he found interesting?

“It’s funny. Yes, but at the same time, probably not even something that I could feel like, ‘Oh, yes, the quantum spin of …’ Mostly just some of the crazy science lines he says, for my own fun, I like to research afterwards. And I’ll end up learning some interesting things. I’ve got a friend who’s a genius, I can ask [him] those things. But it’s always fascinating to see what they cook up. We actually have a science expert on our show who helps with those lines. And sometimes with the scripts, before they’ve gone over everything, before they’ve approved all the science lines, they’ll just say, ‘Science line to come,’ which always makes me laugh so hard.”

What are some of the biggest lessons Armitage has learned from his years on YOUNG SHELDON?

“It’s funny,” Armitage muses, “because I feel like it would be expected of me to say something science-related. But I feel like, in terms of a real lesson I’ve learned, probably less tangible things that I can repeat back or say, and more just getting to be around such incredible actors and actresses, like Annie Potts [who plays grandmother Meemaw], like Lance [Barber, who plays Sheldon’s dad George Sr.] and Zoe [Perry, who plays Sheldon’s mother Mary] and Montana and Raegan [Revord, who plays Sheldon’s sister Missy], and Miss Emily, and also Mr. Jim Parsons, and just getting to see the way they work, and how professional they are, and how interesting and cool and kind and funny they are. And that will always be something that I hope to carry with me, and I hope I can be as good with everything, especially acting, as they are.”

Related: Interview: YOUNG SHELDON actress Annie Potts on the final season of the BIG BANG THEORY spin-off

Related: Interview: YOUNG SHELDON actress Annie Potts chats about Season 1 of THE BIG BANG THEORY spin-off

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Article: Interview: YOUNG SHELDON star Iain Armitage on the final season of the hit CBS comedy series

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