Farewell, Young Sheldon? 5 Signs the End Is Nigh for Big Bang Theory Spinoff — Including a Curious Trip to Germany
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The Big Bang Theory franchise may play fast and loose with continuity, but there are several unavoidable, life-altering milestones in Young Sheldon‘s future that can’t be rewritten — and all of them point towards the prequel series’ endgame.
As TVLine previously reported, preliminary talks have begun about whether Season 7 will be Young Sheldon‘s last. “We certainly have a plan in place of where we’re aiming [to get] next season with some understanding, and some flexibility, that this may or may not be the end,” executive producer Steve Holland told us in March. And with the recent reveal that the comedy’s supersized May 18 finale will see Sheldon embark on a trip first mentioned during Season 1 of Big Bang (more on that below), we here at TVLine thought it’d be a good time to review where the beloved offshoot is headed.
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Are you ready to see Young Sheldon end? Review all the signs that the prequel is inching closer to its natural stopping point, then hit the comments and let us know.
GUTEN TAG, SHELDON!
In the upcoming Season 6 finale, 13-year-old Sheldon and his mother Mary head to Germany while the rest of the Coopers brave a tornado barreling toward Medford. If that storyline sounds familiar, that’s because Big Bang alluded to it in a 2008 episode. In Season 1’s “The Pancake Batter Anomaly,” Sheldon told Penny that Mary accompanied him while he was a visiting professor at the Heidelberg Institute — only then, Sheldon said he was 15.
“My mom had to fly back to Texas to help my dad because the house slipped off cinderblocks again,” he said. “It was tornado season, and it was an aluminum house.”
AUF WIEDERSEHEN, GEORGE?
Sheldon’s recollection of his stint in Germany predated Sheldon telling Bernadette’s father that George died when he was 14, a piece of dialogue that came in Big Bang Season 7 and is now considered canon. Moving up Sheldon and Mary’s time abroad by two years on Young Sheldon seems to suggest that the producers are still writing towards George’s death a year from now.
THE MOVE TO PASADENA
Per Big Bang, Sheldon completes his undergraduate studies at 14, at which point he makes the move from Medford, Texas, to Pasadena, Calif. to begin his graduate studies at CalTech University. And you can’t have Young Sheldon without, well… Young Sheldon!
GEORGIE GETTING MARRIED
In Young Sheldon Season 1, George bet his son $1,000 that he’d be married before he turns 25. After accepting Dad’s bet, our narrator chimed in to say that “Georgie married his first wife at 19” — and in the most recent episode, 18-year-old Georgie proposed to baby mama Mandy! They may not get their Happily Ever After — per Big Bang lore, Georgie marries and divorces twice by 2019 — but their nuptials would mark a fitting end to Georgie’s prequel arc.
TAKING THE FRANCHISE TO THE MAX
As Young Sheldon nears the end of a three-season renewal, Big Bang co-creator Chuck Lorre is working on a second spinoff — not for CBS, but for (no longer HBO) Max. Details remain scarce, but we have to imagine it’s being developed to keep the franchise alive, well after the prequel reaches its end.
For its part, CBS will no doubt want to keep the Young Sheldon train chugging along beyond Season 7. Among all TV comedies, it is the most-watched (in viewers) and trails only its lead-out, Ghosts, in the demo.
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