With a spinoff on the way after the Season 7 finale, you may be curious to know if Young Sheldon Season 8 is in the works. Here’s what we know.
Last week, Young Sheldon’s ending left Big Bang Theory fans bereft; George’s funeral was a proper tear-jerker, and that’s before we got to Sheldon walking triumphantly into his future at Caltech.
This came after the trauma of George’s death in the penultimate batch, but certain questions remain: what happened to Paige, how will Missy cope with just her and Mary at home, and then there’s the small matter of Georgie & Mandy’s spinoff.
While fans have been revisiting The Big Bang Theory, they’re still begging for more Young Sheldon — so, here’s the situation with Season 8.
Is Young Sheldon Season 8 happening?
No, Young Sheldon Season 8 isn’t happening. The series will end with its seventh season, which concludes with Episodes 13 and 14 on May 16, 2024.
The decision to bring the show to a close isn’t that surprising: George has died, Sheldon is getting ready to leave for Caltech, and life is about to get quite different for the rest of the characters. Also, he’s not that young anymore.
“In the Big Bang universe, Sheldon goes to Caltech at 14. Even if we ignored that, the show is called Young Sheldon, and that’s not true anymore,” creator Chuck Lorre told USA Today.
“We got to watch this guy grow up, and it was wonderful. It’s heartbreaking to end, even though it was the right story decision. It just felt like the right time. But it didn’t make it any less emotional.”
That said, it still felt like an “ambush” for Annie Potts, who plays Meemaw. “This one was especially hard because I was completely unprepared. I was shocked. I mean, the No. 1 show on network TV, No. 1 on Netflix,” she told Variety.
“We’re, I think, all that people watch on TikTok besides a couple of recipes for pasta. It just seemed like such a stupid business move. Forgive me, but I don’t know. If a show is starting to drag or lag or have a lack of stories or whatever, then you kind of see it coming. We were totally ambushed by this. I was, anyway.”
Iain Armitage, who plays the titular character, agreed with Potts. “I totally get what Annie means. It’s also just hard in a really weird way that I can only really see if I step back and try and take a global view, which is hard… I definitely think we could have done a lot more,” he said.
What’s the next series after Young Sheldon Season 7?
While there’s no Season 8, a Young Sheldon spinoff is in the works: Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.
The series was given the official green light in March. According to Deadline, it “follows Young Sheldon’s Georgie and Mandy as they raise their young family in Texas while navigating the challenges of adulthood, parenting and marriage.”
While Montana Jordan’s Georgie has been part of the cast since Season 1, Emily Osment debuted as Mandy in Season 5. She quickly struck up a relationship with the eldest Cooper child, and they’re now married with a baby, Cece.
“From the Big Bang Theory to Young Sheldon, the world of the Cooper family has been incredibly special to us. We’re very excited to continue their stories through the eyes of Georgie and Mandy,” Lorre, Steven Molaro, and Steve Holland said in a joint statement.
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However, there’s a catch: Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage will be a multi-cam sitcom, meaning a return to the laugh-track format of The Big Bang Theory. This has been criticized by fans, but there’s another issue: it’s unclear who (if any) from the main cast will reprise their roles, with just Rachel Bay Jones (Audrey) and Will Sasso (Jim) confirmed to join Jordan and Osment.
If you’re interested, you can check out our theories for the Young Sheldon sequel.
Will there be any other Big Bang Theory spinoffs?
Another Big Bang Theory spinoff is in development that’s separate from the Georgie & Mandy series, but Chuck Lorre hasn’t revealed any details.
It was first reported in April 2023 that Lorre and co. were developing a new spinoff for Max. However, he was quick to rein in people’s excitement later that year, telling TVLine: “It’s prenatal. Yeah, you don’t talk about the birth until the second trimester, I believe, is the rule. That’s a long way of saying no, I’ve got nothing to say about it other than it’s something that we are discussing.”
He echoed this in an interview with TV’s Top 5 podcast. “Nothing’s wound up at Max, first of all. I don’t know what you were told. But we have nothing in place at Max. Zero, nothing. No one knows anything about what this is, other than the people that have been working on it with me. And so nothing has been pitched, nothing’s been placed. So it’s all very prenatal,” he explained.
“We haven’t presented this to anyone. I’m not a big fan of spinoffs or stuff like that, unless it just feels like… wonderful, fresh. This could conceivably be very different and also very funny. That’s the reason to go forward, not to keep digging in the same mine for the same precious minerals. It’s about doing something worth doing. Otherwise, it’s greedy. There’s no reason for that.”
So, it’s unclear who or what it’ll be about. Fans have speculated that it could follow Howard or Raj after the final season of TBBT, but Kunal Nayyar isn’t rushing to come back.
“To be honest, it feels a little too soon. Can you do a [revival] only four years after your show ends? That’s not a reunion show; that’s just another season. If [the spinoff] were to happen, we’ll see what the universe says,” he told TVLine.
Will there be an Old Sheldon TV show?
Jim Parsons hasn’t ruled out starring in an Old Sheldon TV show, but it’s not been confirmed.
In theory, the show’s story could continue right through to the moment Sheldon meets Leonard. He’s 14 in Season 7, so there’s 13 years left to explore. However, fans have also floated the idea of reuniting with Sheldon far in the future; we already know he’s married Amy, and they have children, so perhaps it could pick up with him dealing with his first grandchild.
During an appearance on Justin Long’s Life Is Short podcast, he said: “At this point, hell no. In 30 years, maybe. You’ll have to ask me then. It’ll depend on how nice the beach is I’m living on. If it’s flooded away, I might come back.”
But maybe it wouldn’t be Parsons. On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, he was shown side-by-side photos of him and Armitage, to which the actor remarked, “It is interesting. There’s definitely a resemblance. The one thing I will say is Michael Keaton — that really looks like Michael Keaton still, doesn’t it?”
When Fallon asked if Parsons thought Keaton would ever play old Sheldon in a spin-off, Parsons responded, “Let me tell you this: I doubt that’s going to happen. But I would be so excited to have Michael Keaton added to the lineage of Sheldon portrayers. I would be amazed.”
That’s everything we know about Young Sheldon Season 8. In the meantime, check out our recaps of Episode 13 and Episode 14, our breakdowns of Young Sheldon’s filming locations and the show’s cast and characters, and other new TV shows to stream this month.