“Young Sheldon” actor Iain Armitage might’ve become a star thanks to the hit CBS sitcom, but when it came time to call it quits on the seven-season series in 2024, he admits he was the cast member “the most happy about the show ending.”
In an interview featured in Jessica Radloff’s oral history, “Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy” (via US Weekly), Armitage, who played the titular character, said he wasn’t “going home and crying all day” like some of his co-workers at the news of the series ending. He also added that it was “heavy and annoying and weird” to be in a state of mourning around “Young Sheldon,” and 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 said. “I would hate to be on a show playing 23-year-old Sheldon. That would suck. I wouldn’t want to do that.”
Armitage was just eight years old when the series began, and now, two years since it ended, he said he it’s “nostalgic sad” to look back. “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.”
“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,” said Lance Barber, who played George Sr., Sheldon’s dad, in the book. “I think a lot of people felt there were certain elements of the show that they were ready to move on from.”
In a previously released excerpt of Radloff’s novel, Armitage said that while it was a “complete privilege” to be on the show, it was a “big undertaking for an 8-year-old.” “I always did the best that I could, and sometimes kids are not perfect,” he continued. “I was grateful to the people who understood that and gave me grace.”
“Young Sheldon” was so successful that the Sheldon Cooper-focused “Big Bang Theory” prequel inspired its own spinoff, “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” which premiered in 2024.