Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage stars and creator tease cameos and family drama in new spinoff

What’s in a name? The team behind upcoming Young Sheldon spinoff series Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage was hoping you would ask.

That title can be read in a couple different ways. As Mandy herself, a.k.a. star Emily Osment, puts it to Entertainment Weekly, “It makes the viewer wonder if this is their first marriage or what could be their second marriage? Will their second marriage be to each other? There’s a lot of questions that are asked when you look at that title.”

Executive producer Steve Holland says that ambiguity was absolutely the point, though he doesn’t expect the true meaning to be answered immediately. “I don’t think it will be explored right away. I think how you should interpret that title, I hope, is intriguing, and a little playful, and a little mysterious,” he says.

Though the character of Georgie Cooper, Sheldon’s older brother, was first introduced as an adult in the series that started it all, The Big Bang Theory, it wasn’t until that show’s prequel series Young Sheldon that he was really explored. Young Sheldon — which aired its final episode in May after seven seasons — first introduced Mandy in season 5 as a former weather forecaster many years older than Georgie (Montana Jordan), with whom he eventually has a baby and gets married.

The title of Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage hints at all of this, too, says Holland: “They’re a young couple, he’s much younger than she is. They got into this marriage in unique circumstances, so it’s not necessarily going to be an easy ride for them, even though they love each other and they’re in this for the long haul. I think it’s just a little hint that everything isn’t necessarily going to go smoothly for these two.”

The two definitely have a lot on their mind. After all, the series picks up a couple of months after the events of the Young Sheldon finale, which famously and tragically depicted the death of George Sr. (Lance Barber), father to Georgie, Sheldon, and their sister Missy (Raegan Revord).

Though Holland says the death won’t be “as heavy” in Georgie & Mandy‘s early episodes, “it’s definitely a piece of the show and a piece of his character — he’s still this bright, sunny optimist, but he has this little bit of pain that’s still hanging in there.”

“I think he promised his dad in the Young Sheldon finale that he would take care of everyone, and I think he takes that responsibility seriously,” teases Holland. “So he has a new wife and a baby and in-laws, but he also has a teenage sister who might be not handling her situation very well and needs some looking in on, and a mom who’s grieving, and a grandmother who’s still in town. So there’s a lot on his plate.”

Jordan, for his part, says he’s excited to see his character go from a “teenager messing around” to an adult with responsibilities. “In Young Sheldon, you got to see when he was a kid, and now you get to see him step up and be the father role and the man of the household,” he says.

The Big Bang Theory depicts an older Georgie as the wealthy owner of a successful car tire business, and the very first episodes of Georgie & Mandy hint at that eventual transformation. “As we all know, he grows up to be the tire king,” says Jordan. “So obviously I’d love to explore that a whole lot more. In the first episode you get to see a lot of the tire shop stuff and it lets the audience know that it’s coming back — he’s definitely going to be the tire king one day.”

Another thing Jordan is excited to explore is the relationship between Georgie and his father-in-law, Jim (Will Sasso). “I really love Georgie and Jim’s connection, and every storyline that they have together, it’s really great. So you get to see that and you get to see Jim comforting Georgie over his father’s death,” Jordan says.

Speaking of the in-laws, at the top of series, Georgie and Mandy and their daughter are living with Mandy’s parents, Jim and Audrey (Rachel Bay Jones). Therefore, in addition to everything else, they’re having to navigate inner-family politics. “This first season we’re transitioning into Georgie and Mandy living with her parents,” explains Osment. “They have two grown kids and then the grown kids come back and there’s a baby with them now. So it’s definitely a full house, and we get to see a little bit more insight into Jim and Audrey’s relationship, which can be definitely hostile. And we see where Mandy gets a little bit of her bite sometimes with Audrey.”

Of course, it’s not just Georgie who has a budding career. Osment says by episode 2, her character is already looking into job options. “I’m excited to explore her trying to find a new career for herself, whether that’s back in the weather world or back on television or somewhere else in Medford,” she teases. “They need it. They’re living with her parents to save money, but they want to get out on their own as soon as possible.”

Naturally, all of these plot points mean some familiar faces from Young Sheldon will crop up. In addition to Jordan, Osment, Sasso, and Jones, Zoe Perry and Revord are also set to reprise their roles as Georgie’s mother and sister, Mary and Missy Cooper, respectively. And, of course, Annie Potts is back again as fan-favorite grandmother, Meemaw. (To this day, Jordan says, “When people come up to me, they don’t ask to speak to me, they just tell me to tell Miss Annie Potts hi. That’s all they do. Everybody loves Meemaw, including me.”) Newcomers include Dougie Baldwin as Mandy’s brother, Connor, and Jessie Prez as Ruben, an employee at Jim’s tire store.

And while Holland says there is no “grand plan” for more cameos necessarily, he does admit “we would love to have more of them drop by.” As for entirely new faces, Jordan doesn’t hesitate to throw out a pitch of his own. “We had Ms. Reba McEntire on [Young Sheldon], and I just really, really, really feel like we need to have Dolly Parton on there. She could be Mandy’s grandmother or something. We ain’t got that role yet,” he says.

Whether the show is ultimately full of totally familiar or all-new characters, the creative team feels strongly that Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage will appeal to longtime Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon fans and franchise newcomers alike. After all, as Osment, Jordan, and Holland each point out to EW, Young Sheldon was very successful despite having a large contingent of viewers that weren’t familiar with its predecessor.

“There was quite a large audience that appeared for Young Sheldon that had never even seen Big Bang Theory,” Osment says. In fact, the star recalls an audience member coming up to her once and telling her about how they discovered the show on TikTok. “It’s like we have these young preteen kids coming in to watch these shows that didn’t know there was an entire origin story before it, and I think it goes to show that these shows do live on their own page and they have a life to themselves, and the audience will find it,” she adds.

Holland, who’s served as writer and executive producer on all three shows, says he ultimately hopes audiences are just as excited as he was to dig into a different part of the Big Bang Theory television universe. “This is the first time in 18 years that we’re not writing for Sheldon, and Sheldon’s a great character and I’m so proud to have been a part of writing that character, but this is a different show,” Holland says. “I don’t have to keep Googling science facts anymore or trying to pretend that I know what I’m talking about. This is a much more, I think, relatable family show. These are different characters. It’s the same world, but the slice of this world they inhabit has a different flavor to it.”