Here's Why Young Sheldon Did Not Continue For Season 8

The conclusion of Young Sheldon after 7 seasons has been clarified by its creators. In an interview Steven Molaro and Steve Holland, the co-creator and exec producer detailed the cause of the ending.

Published on Jun 28, 2024  |  10:12 PM IST |  137.6K
 IMDB and YouTube/Big Bang Theory
Young Sheldon (P.C.- IMDB and YouTube/Big Bang Theory)

After seven successful seasons, the Cooper family said goodbye as the CBS hit series Young Sheldon aired its final episode on May 16. Young Sheldon, a spin-off prequel to the CBS mega-hit The Big Bang Theory, which ran from 2007-2019 premiered in 2017 and focused on the childhood of Sheldon Cooper, a role originated by Jim Parsons on The Big Bang Theory. The co-creator of the show Steven Molaro and executive producer Steve Holland discussed the cause of having to end it after seven seasons. 

What led to the end of Young Sheldon after seven seasons?

On the decision to wrap up the show after seven seasons, Steven Molaro, creator of Young Sheldon along with Chuck Lorre, and executive producer Steve Holland, who has been a writer on the show since Season 2 talked in an interview with The New York Times shed light on. They explained that the show was always intended to have a definitive endpoint.

From its inception, fans were aware of Sheldon Cooper's (Iain Armitage) backstory, thanks to The Big Bang Theory. It was known that Sheldon would experience the loss of his father, George Sr. (Lance Barber), and begin graduate school at Caltech at 14. This pre-determined timeline meant that Young Sheldon couldn't continue a decade-long run like its predecessor.

When the Writer's Guild of America strike concluded in late 2023, the creators faced the difficult choice to end the series after its seventh season. Holland remarked, "The premise of the show is that an exceptional young kid is thrust into a world where everyone is older than him. But as soon as Iain aged and Sheldon aged, he didn't look that out of place anymore, even in college."

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In an attempt to prolong the show's natural course, a two-season arc where Sheldon and his twin sister, Missy (Raegan Revord), remained the same age was employed. However, as co-creator Chuck Lorre told USA Today, continuing Sheldon's story beyond his entry into graduate school would undermine the prequel's intent.

Lorre elaborated that in the Big Bang universe, Sheldon goes to Caltech at 14. Even if they ignored that, it is after all called Young Sheldon, and that was not valid anymore. They got to watch him grow up, and it was wonderful. However, it's heartbreaking to end, even though it was the right story decision. The timing to call it a day was most probably the right moment according to them though the emotional toll was not any less. 

Young Sheldon had a logical ending

Season 6 concluded with Sheldon and Mary in Germany, hinting that season seven might start with Sheldon being far from his family. Nevertheless, with numerous character arcs needing resolution, he would certainly return in time to wrap up these storylines.

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The death of Sheldon's father ensured the show would conclude on a bittersweet note for the Cooper family. However, it also offered a logical endpoint that fits the timeline the series had always followed.

It's surely disappointing for fans that "Young Sheldon" won't return for an eighth season, it seemed clear that Holland and the creative team would have had a definitive vision for the series' conclusion. With a shortened season of 14 episodes, the show needed to address its main storylines more swiftly than usual and it did.

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