Young Sheldon: The Real Reason Mckenna Grace's Paige Swanson Didn't Return
With seven seasons to its name, "Young Sheldon" has come to an end. The two-part finale, "Funeral" and "Memoir," sent off the Cooper family and their group of Medford, Texas friends proper, in addition to racking up some surprising viewership numbers. Perhaps most notably, the finale also covered Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Amy Farrah Fowler's (Mayim Bialik) life changes post-"The Big Bang Theory." Despite all of this, some loose ends remain, such as the fate of Sheldon's (Iain Armitage) childhood friend, Paige Swanson (Mckenna Grace), who hasn't been seen since "A Stolen Truck and Going on the Lam" from Season 6.
Thankfully, for those wondering why the creatives behind "Young Sheldon" seemingly forgot about Paige, one such mind has explained her absence. During a chat with TVLine, executive producer Steve Holland touched on why the child prodigy-turned-rebel never returned to the "Young Sheldon" spotlight. "Mckenna is incredible. The downside of Mckenna being incredible is that Mckenna is a movie star...and that makes Mckenna very difficult to get," he explained, revealing that Grace's status as a rising star in Hollywood, with her recently becoming the new face of the "Ghostbusters" franchise, made her "Young Sheldon" comeback impossible.
At the same time, Holland admitted that he didn't see a need for Paige to return to the forefront of "Young Sheldon."
Steve Holland felt Paige's story was told by Season 7
After explaining that Mckenna Grace's schedule served as a barrier preventing Paige Swanson from returning to "Young Sheldon," Steve Holland added his belief that the character's comeback wasn't entirely necessary anyway. "We never thought that [Paige's storyline] was an arc that needed more closing than it got. There was a parallel; she was a bit of a mirror image of Sheldon — a different way that Sheldon could have turned out — and I think we saw that play out," he told TVLine, asserting that her narrative is basically complete by the end of her final appearance.
Continuing, Holland addressed that there are some wild fan theories out there regarding Paige's whereabouts, but the intention wasn't to spawn them. He said, "I don't think she's not mentioned because she went down a dark path and is dead in 'Big Bang Theory.' For us, it was just an interesting way to explore another kid who had a similar thing to Sheldon and the different roads that they could take." He even goes as far as claiming that she's more so Missy Cooper's (Raegan Revord) friend than Sheldon's. At the same time, Holland mentioned that he and the rest of the "Young Sheldon" team would've loved to work with Grace again had the opportunity arose.
Even though she only appears in a mere nine "Young Sheldon" episodes, Mckenna Grace's Paige Swanson made quite an impact on the sitcom's fanbase. One can only hope that the character and the actor behind her will return to the small screen someday, rectifying their noticeable absence from the final season of "Young Sheldon."