Regan Reford Young Sheldon found out about George Sr.’s fate when he was very young

Looming over seven seasons of “Young Sheldon” was a major tragedy: the family patriarch, George Sr. (Lance Barber), was doomed to die before Sheldon could even go to college because of the “Big Bang Theory.” Although the series took some liberties with other elements of Old Sheldon’s backstory — for example, George Sr., played by Lance Barber, is a much better father in the previous spin-off than Sheldon ever made him out to be — the writers always knew that There is no undoing the death of George Sr. This event was simply too big a part of Sheldon’s character to be rewritten.

For many of the Young Sheldon seniors, this inevitable tragedy had been known from the beginning. But Raegan Wreford, who played Sheldon’s adorable twin sister Missy, didn’t find out until after the show had already started. As I 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’s something my parents only told me.” Because they saw how close we all were right away, and they were like, ‘Oh, by the way, this is happening.’” And so, we kind of went through the show knowing that we were going to get there at some point, but it kind of helped us because it was like cherishing the scenes with George… Get this Knowing really helped bring those moments together.”

It might have been better if Rayford’s parents told her the truth about George Sr.’s fate in Season 1, as it gave her plenty of time to come to terms with him before Season 7 came around. For the rest of the cast, who seemed to have known about it since day one, that sense of inevitability certainly seemed to help soften the blow a bit.

“(Lance Barber) has known from the beginning of the show that George Sr. has an expiration date,” showrunner Steve Holland said He explained In a recent interview. “We slowed the time down a little bit. Like, we extended it because the kids, our actual cast members, Regan and Ian, are 16 in real life. We extended one year to two seasons to keep Lance alive as long as we could, but he always knew That this is coming. It’s a similar approach to “That ’70s Show,” which began in 1976 and extended those four years into eight seasons to avoid the horrific hits of the 1980s but like a year couldn’t be stopped 1980 George’s untimely demise is slowly taking its toll on the cast of “Young Sheldon.”

Barber confirmed that he was aware of the matter in A Press tour interview this year. “I had the luxury of being emotionally prepared for this from day one,” he said, though knowing what was to come didn’t stop the production of his final episode from feeling serious for everyone involved. Like young Sheldon actor Ian Armitage He explained“Everyone was crying. It was so hard. We love Lance so much.”