Static Media/CBS
Looming over seven seasons of "Young Sheldon" was a grand tragedy: the family's patriarch, George Sr. (Lance Barber) was doomed by "Big Bang Theory" canon to die before Sheldon went to college. Although the show took some liberties with other elements of Old Sheldon's backstory — for instance, George Sr., played by Lance Barber, is a way better father in the prequel spin-off than Sheldon ever made him sound — the writers always knew there was no backing out of George Sr.'s death. That event was simply too big a part of Sheldon's character to rewrite.
For a lot of the older cast members of "Young Sheldon," this unavoidable tragedy was known from the start. But Raegan Revord, who played Sheldon' cool twin sister Missy, only learned about it after already beginning the show. As she explained in a recent interview:
"When I [first] did the show, I mean, I was nine years old. Big Bang is not for a nine-year-old, so I've never seen it before ... I want to say it was in Season 1 because I feel like it was something my parents told me just because they saw how immediately close we all were. They were like, 'By the way this does happen.' And so it's kind of we've gone through the show knowing we were gonna get there at some point. But it kind of helped because it was like treasuring the scenes with George... Having that knowledge really helped hold those moments close."
The cast of Young Sheldon were dreading George Sr.'s death for years
CBS
It was probably for the best that Revord's parents told her the truth about George Sr.'s fate back in season 1, as that gave her plenty of time to make peace with it before season 7 came. For the rest of the cast, who seem to have all known about it from day one, that sense of inevitability definitely seemed to help ease the blow a bit.
"[Lance Barber]'s known since the beginning of the show that George Sr. had an expiration date," showrunner Steve Holland explained in a recent interview. "We slowed time down a little bit. Like, we extended it because the kids, our actual cast members Raegan and Iain, are 16 in real life. We stretched one year out into a couple seasons to keep Lance alive as far as long as we could. But he always knew this was coming." It's a similar approach to "That '70s Show," which started out in 1976 and stretched out those four years to eight seasons to avoid the dreaded '80s from hitting. But just as 1980 couldn't be stopped, George's untimely demise was slowly marching upon the "Young Sheldon" cast.
Barber confirmed he knew about it in a press tour interview this year. "I had the luxury of being emotionally prepared for this from day one," he said, although even knowing what would come still didn't stop the production of his final episode from feeling solemn for everyone involved. As young Sheldon's actor Iain Armitage explained, "Everyone was crying. It was very hard. We love Lance so much."
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