She definitely didn’t know going in.
As Young Sheldon heads into its final episodes, there’s still at least one major scene coming that many fans have been knowingly waiting for since the start: Lance Barber’s George Sr. will die before Sheldon heads off to college. While we’re still waiting for that to happen, CinemaBlend had a wonderful opportunity to speak to co-star Raegan Revord about when she first found out that big moment was coming.
With Young Sheldon continuing to set up George’s death as the final season continues, I was pleased to speak with Revord, who has been playing Missy Cooper since she was nine years old. When I asked the now 16-year-old actress when she first learned about the grim direction the series was heading towards, she told me how she found out, along with another surprising fact.
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, and I actually still haven’t seen it. I probably should watch it at some point. I want to say it was in Season 1 because I feel like it was something my parents told me just because, like, they saw how, like 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.
Raegan Revord wasn’t allowed to watch The Big Bang Theory when she was younger but she did tell CinemaBlend during the interview she had attended tapings when the two shows were airing at the same time. So like any fans who may have started watching the Iain Armitage-starring spinoff without having seen the flagship, Revord wasn’t up to date on what these characters’ futures were.
As such, she wasn’t made aware of what would happen to Lance Barber’s character until being told by her parents, as they didn’t want her to be blindsided if the writers chose to introduce that tragedy early on. Fortunately, the show has waited until the final episodes before it’ll happen, apparently, so she’s old enough to likely make the sting of him being written off less dramatic. (As an aside, she definitely needs to pick up a Max subscription and watch TBBT at some point, amirite?)
What’s wilder to think about as a fan is how young stars like Iain Armitage, Montana Jordan, and Raegan Revord were practically raised on the set from childhood to their late teens. Armitage has called his co-stars his family, and it’s easy to believe that, given the time they’ve spent together over the years. They’ve experienced some major moments on this set, including a scary 2023 car accident that left Revord shaken up before filming a big episode. So even though Barber isn’t any of the younger actors’ real father, losing him will be no less difficult.
While George Sr.’s time in Young Sheldon is finite, the adventures of at least a chunk of the Cooper family will continue in a spinoff based around Georgie and Mandy. Unfortunately, Raegan Revord told Digital Spy recently she “wasn’t invited” to the new spinoff, so it doesn’t appear Missy will be a series regular in the new show. Let’s hope she does get a chance to appear in the future, however, because there’s still plenty of story to tell with the Coopers once Sheldon is away at college.
Young Sheldon continues with new episodes on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. The final episodes are sure to be emotional and further set up the upcoming spinoff, so I can’t wait to see how they turn out and the performances from the younger cast like Raegan Revord.
