‘Young Sheldon’: Iain Armitage Reveals What Iconic Sheldon Cooper Prop He Took From Set Filming the Series Finale (Exclusive)

Iain Armitage is taking a bit of Sheldon Cooper with him as he says goodbye to the beloved character after seven seasons of Young Sheldon. Ahead of the May 16 series finale of the CBS hit, the 15-year-old actor revealed to PopCulture.com which of Sheldon’s iconic props he took with him from the set – and what awaits him as he looks to the future.

Aside from “seven years of happy memories and good experiences,” Armitage confessed, “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take one of my bow ties. There’s a few. I took one – I’m frugal.” The teen, who began playing Sheldon when he was just 8 years old, also revealed he took “a ship in a bottle” that was on a shelf on the Cooper home set and “a couple little antique spoons.” 

“But I will say that was it for me. Some people scavenged the set,” he joked, “It looked like a hurricane had gone through there by the end, not just a tornado, like with Meemaw.”

Going into the series finale, Armitage said he feels “very honored and excited” to be going out with a bang after seven seasons. “It’s been such an incredible seven years,” he gushed. “And also, getting to read these scripts, like the second I got to read them, I was so impressed. Our writers are incredible, they’re always so masterful, but getting to really read over [the scripts], and realize what a good ending to the show it is, I just was hoping that I could do it justice in my acting because I was so impressed by their writing.”

Having taken Jim Parsons’ original Big Bang Theory character and created his own beloved take on Sheldon has been “pretty incredible and a massive honor,” but Armitage humbly says he’s not sure he deserves compared to Parsons’ original performance.

“I’m sort of in awe that they trusted 8-year-old me to try and portray that because [Parsons] is so talented,” he said.

Looking to the future, Armitage says “it would be an honor to be associated” with Sheldon forever – but he’d love to “flex that acting muscle” with something out of his comfort zone.

“Sometimes you’ll see people who have acted as a kid or been more notable for one part and they kinda wanna be like, ‘I wanna break out of that and be edgy and different.’ I’m not,” he shared. “I’m very happy to do TV like [Young Sheldon], I love the character Sheldon. Hey, I’d love to bring it back.”

“But, it also would be so cool to do something really different like an action movie or a drama or just something completely different,” the young actor admitted. “Just more to flex that acting muscle, and less to break away from Sheldon, ’cause I love him to death.”

The Young Sheldon series finale airs Thursday, May 16, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.