The Jim Parsons Incident That Inspired Young Sheldon

Creating movies and TV shows with the goal of spawning spin-offs is all the rage these days. As such, it's easy to assume that "Young Sheldon" was born from a desire to continue milking the popularity of "The Big Bang Theory" after it ended with season 12. However, as Chuck Lorre told The Hollywood Reporter, the genesis for Sheldon Cooper's coming-of-age story came from a conversation he had with Jim Parsons about a real-life child genius.

"The beginning was a phone call from Jim Parsons, who sent me a video of his 10-year-old nephew in Texas who is a prodigy — brilliant, extraordinary, off the hook, crazy smart kid. And Jim asked, 'Is there anything we can do with this?' I said, 'Well, if we wanted to do a show about a young man who is brilliant — a comedy — we have that built into our show. That's the backstory of Sheldon Cooper.'"

Given that "The Big Bang Theory" provides lots of information about Sheldon's childhood and introduces us to some of his family members, the groundwork was already laid for a prequel series before Parsons and Lorre even had that conversation. However, Parsons wasn't initially on board with the idea of making "Young Sheldon," despite his desire to work on a project inspired by his nephew.

Jim Parsons almost rejected "Young Sheldon," with his reason being a lack of desire to reprise the role of Sheldon Cooper. After all, he left "The Big Bang Theory" because he wanted to pursue other projects, but to paraphrase Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in "The Godfather," he got pulled back in when he thought he was out.

The actor has also been vocal about his dislike for spin-offs, but he agreed to be part of the prequel project as its narrator and executive producer after Chuck Lorre convinced him that it was an origin story. The rest is, as they say, history — and Parsons even returned for an on-screen cameo in the emotional "Young Sheldon" finale.

"Young Sheldon" ended after seven successful seasons and produced its own spin-off with "Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage." With the franchise expanding once again, there could be opportunities for Parsons to return to the fold in some capacity down the line. Unfortunately for fans, Parsons never wants to play Sheldon Cooper ever again, though he is open-minded enough to know that he can never rule it out.