‘Young Sheldon’ actor Iain Armitage was ‘most happy’ when the CBS show ended after 7 seasons. Two years later, he looks back and feels ‘nostalgic sad’

Iain Armitage, the actor who brought Young Sheldon to life, has shared that he was actually “the most happy about the show ending” when the CBS sitcom wrapped up its seven-season run in 2024. Despite the initial relief, he now looks back on the experience with a feeling he describes as “nostalgic sad” two years later.

Armitage opened up about his feelings 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). He wasn’t “going home and crying all day” like some of his co-workers when the news broke that the series was ending. He found being in a state of mourning around Young Sheldon to be “heavy and annoying and weird,” and he just refused to “stay in that heaviness forever.”

He mentioned that he really wanted to be in Virginia, and he wanted to be traveling. He was also happy to do whatever movie came up next, which is a great attitude to have as a young actor. Armitage also shared that his mom has always given him a very healthy sense of ephemerality, teaching him that nothing good can last and everything changes, and that’s a good thing. This perspective definitely helped him embrace the end of the show.

Armitage certainly couldn’t imagine playing the character for any longer

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.” He was only eight years old when the series began, so it was a huge chunk of his young life dedicated to the role.

Now, a couple of years after the cameras stopped rolling, his feelings have shifted a bit. He feels “nostalgic sad” when he thinks back on it all. He misses working at Warner Bros., and he misses the crew and the people he grew to love. He also loves the act of acting itself, finding it fun, but he doesn’t necessarily miss specific moments as much as the overall experience.

Lance Barber, who played George Sr., Sheldon’s dad, also weighed in on Armitage’s readiness to move on, saying in the book, “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.” Barber added that he thinks a lot of people felt there were certain elements of the show that they were ready to move on from. It sounds like a natural progression for a long-running series.

In a previously released excerpt from Radloff’s book, Armitage had called his time on the show a “complete privilege,” but he acknowledged that it was also a “big undertaking for an 8-year-old.” He always did the best that he could, and sometimes kids are not perfect, he explained. He was grateful to the people who understood that and gave him grace during his time on set.

Young Sheldon was incredibly successful, so much so that the Big Bang Theory prequel, which focused on Sheldon Cooper, even inspired its own spinoff. Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage premiered in 2024, continuing the story of some of the beloved characters.