Young Sheldon and House of the Dragon Child Actors Didn’t Watch OG Shows for the Same Reason
Though the difference between the two series couldn’t be greater.
Coming as The Big Bang Theory prequel, Young Sheldon has always been dwelling on things that actually didn’t really matter in regard to the original show, though the prequel’s child actors had a very different reason to avoid getting familiar with the initial source for quite some time.
Just like any other show’s creators, Young Sheldon crew had a whole list of rules that the cast was supposed to strictly follow, and one of those had a very specific request regarding young actors and The Big Bang Theory.
Ironically, almost the same thing happened to House of the Dragon ’s child actors, but with a slightly different set of circumstances.
Having spent seven years on TV, Young Sheldon came to its definite end back in May, and it seems like the majority of the show’s cast got a chance to see The Big Bang Theory only now.
A while ago, both Iain Armitage and Raegan Revord, who portray twins Sheldon and Missy Cooper on the show, stated that they weren’t allowed to watch the original series when the production had only started as both were too young for all the adult jokes that The Big Bang Theory was crammed with.
Still, unlike Revord who seemingly to this day has no clue what’s even happening in the sitcom, Armitage did see some select fragments, but only those that showed Jim Parsons portraying Sheldon Cooper — which is pretty logical given that Sheldon’s younger actor had to understand who he was going to bring back to the screen anyway.
The experience that Young Sheldon’s child actors had while being banned from ever turning to The Big Bang Theory is actually something that House of the Dragon’s young actors also could relate to, though in their case everything just boiled down to their own decision.
Upon the initial launch of Game of Thrones prequel back in 2022, the show’s actors Emily Carey and Milly Alcock, who in the first season portrayed young Alicent and Rhaenyra respectively, confessed to never watching Game of Thrones before becoming part of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy universe.
Though there was actually no specific restriction coming from the House of the Dragon crew, both Carey and Alcock admitted that they’d been aware of what was going on in the original series and thus had restrained themselves from watching it until reaching some certain age when it would finally become appropriate.