Jim Parsons says reprising Big Bang Theory role on Young Sheldon was ‘very weird’ but ‘beautiful’

It’s almost time for Young Sheldon to meet old Sheldon.

Jim Parsons is reprising his Big Bang Theory role in the upcoming series finale of the spinoff, and he opened up about the experience on Friday’s episode of Today. When asked what it was like being back, Parsons replied, “Very weird. Also very beautiful.”

Parsons, 51, has narrated Young Sheldon for its entire seven-season run, but the May 16 finale will mark the first time characters from the original show will appear on screen, as he and Big Bang Theory costar Mayim Bialik reprise their roles as socially awkward genius Sheldon Cooper and slightly less socially awkward genius Amy Farrah Fowler.

Details about Parsons and Bialik’s onscreen reunion, however, are being kept under wraps.

“Big Bang Theory was always a live-audience show and Young Sheldon is a single-camera show, and I got to do it with Mayim — we both played Sheldon and Amy from the series — and to do it in that situation, it was just different enough that it wasn’t creepy,” Parsons told Today. “Like going like, ‘What are we doing here again?!’ Instead, it was really sweet. It felt like the nicest little coda to the whole experience, and I was very grateful that they asked us to do it.”

Young Sheldon stars Iain Armitage as the adolescent version of the titular brainiac Parsons played for 12 seasons from 2007 to 2019. And while Young Sheldon is signing off in May, the Big Bang Theory universe is set to expand again with yet another series: a Young Sheldon spinoff centering on Georgie Cooper (Montana Jordan) and his wife, Mandy (Emily Osment), as they raise their family in Texas.