When Will ‘Young Sheldon’ End? If The ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Timeline Is Correct, After Season 7
Young Sheldon is coming up on the end of its sixth season. The series remains incredibly popular among fans, often topping most-watched lists. There is no denying the series is a massive hit for CBS, but we can’t help but wonder just how long it can go on. As a prequel to The Big Bang Theory, it feels like Young Sheldon has an endpoint baked right into it. In a way, it does. If the timeline that The Big Bang Theory set forth for Sheldon Cooper’s move to California remains accurate, Young Sheldon pretty much has to end with its seventh season.
Sheldon Cooper moved to California when he was 14, according to ‘The Big Bang Theory’
When The Big Bang Theory took off, there were no plans to tell Sheldon Cooper’s life story in another show. Still, bits of information about his early life was injected into the series. By the time the show ended, we had learned a ton about Sheldon Cooper. Young Sheldon has largely expanded on what we already knew about Sheldon’s upbringing, although the prequel has introduced a few plot holes.
Since Young Sheldon has stayed mostly true to The Big Bang Theory’s timeline, we can assume Sheldon will move to California to attend CalTech after he graduates from college at 14. What does that mean for the future of the famed prequel, though?
Season 7 of ‘Young Sheldon’ should bring Sheldon to that point in his journey
In season 6 of Young Sheldon, Sheldon Cooper is 13 years old. The season is a pivotal one. Family drama, trauma, and tragedy are plentiful. As the season ends, Sheldon will still be 13, which means he will turn 14 during the seventh season. It’s anyone’s guess how the writing team will handle the very important age for the child genius.
If Sheldon does move on to California at the end of season 7, Young Sheldon is effectively over. At the very least, the series fans have fallen in love with is over. If Sheldon is separated from his family, fans will lose the connection to 90% of the characters they’ve grown to love. Some think the series will end at season 7, instead of continuing to follow Sheldon’s journey into academia.
It would make sense if it did. After all, CBS only renewed the series through season 7. While the network could renew the show for more, it feels like an awfully convenient place to wrap things up. There is, however, technically more story to tell.
When did Sheldon meet the rest of the cast?
While it’s easy to make a case for ending Young Sheldon after season 7, there is more wiggle room than most people think. While Sheldon did, in fact, move to California at the tender age of 14, he didn’t meet his core group of friends at that point. It would be several years before Leonard Hofstadter became Sheldon’s roommate and unwitting caretaker.
The Big Bang Theory began when Sheldon was 27, but he and Leonard had been roommates for several years when the series started. In the episode “The Staircase Implementation,” Leonard and Sheldon revealed they had become roommates seven years earlier. The episode aired in 2010, so the duo became roommates in 2003, four years before the series began. Since Sheldon was 27 when the show started, he met his roommate when he was 23. Raj Koothrapali and Howard Wolowitz came into his life at the same time.
Sheldon met Penny when the series began and Bernadette and Amy Farrah Fowler years later. That means there are nine years of storyline to tell before the cast of The Big Bang Theory begins complicating things. Whether CBS and the team behind Young Sheldon will opt to continue is anyone’s guess, though.
