It’s official: The Big Bang Theory franchise will live on — not on CBS, which currently airs Young Sheldon, but on HBO Max, where a second spinoff from executive producer Chuck Lorre is currently in active development.
The news comes nearly four years after Big Bang wrapped its 12-season, 279-episode run. At the time, Lorre told TVLine that a solid spinoff conceit failed to materialize before the multi-cam completed production. “Unless there was a creative reason to do it — a wonderfully, wonderfully creative reason to do it — than the only reason [to do it] is economics, and that’s not good enough,” he explained. “This is hard work. And if you’re going to do it, you gotta love what you’re doing; you’ve gotta be passionate about it. And if you’re just chasing money, that’s not enough.”
That leads us to believe that Lorre & Co. must have a pretty spectacular idea in mind now. Might it involve one or several returning cast members from the mothership? Or will they go the prequel route again, telling the origin story of another OG character? Perhaps it’ll be neither of those things, but rather a sequel with loose ties to the mothership — anything’s possible!
While we await more concrete details, TVLine has come up with five spinoff ideas of its own. Scroll down to review them all, then hit the comments and describe your dream Big Bang offshoot.
A RAJ-CENTRIC ROM-COM
The mothership wrapped its 12-season run without giving Raj his Happily Ever After. Sure, he got to take Sarah Michelle Gellar to Sheldon and Amy’s Nobel Prize acceptance ceremony in Stockholm, but he still hadn’t found “the one.” All his friends had coupled up — heck, even Stuart found Denise! — and he was left all alone. A Raj-centric spinoff could offer Kunal Nayyar’s alter ego the fairytale ending he deserved.
STUART AND THE COMIC BOOK STORE
The premise writes itself. Give Stuart a new set of friends — perhaps they’re all frequenters of The Comic Center — and voila! Spinoff! In addition to Kevin Sussman, the Powers That Be could bring back Lauren Lapkus as Stuart’s girlfriend Denise, who he’d just agreed to move in with in Big Bang‘s penultimate episode.
THE COOPERS (MINUS SHELDON)
As TVLine previously reported, the Powers That Be have begun having “conversations” about whether to end Young Sheldon with its upcoming Season 7. Should that be the case, the prequel could keep going after Sheldon heads to CalTech and George passes away, showing viewers how Mary, Missy, Georgie, Mandy, C.C. and Meemaw forge ahead without them.
ANOTHER YOUNG ORIGIN STORY
Young Sheldon‘s Season 2 finale offered glimpses of pint-sized Leonard, Penny, Howard, Raj, Bernadette and Amy — and we know from Big Bang that any one of their respective childhoods is ripe with storytelling potential.
BIG BANG: THE NEXT GENERATION
Akin to Hulu’s How I Met Your Father, the new show could be a sequel series with loose ties to the original — perhaps a new set of CalTech brainiacs move into Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment? The premise would allow for Easter eggs and occasional run-ins with characters from the mothership, while also affording the franchise the opportunity to continue on in the present day without the full-time return of any one Big Bang cast member. Heck, if they set the spinoff far enough into the future, those brainiacs could be the children of Leonard and Penny, Sheldon and Amy, and Howard and Bernadette.
