This Book Of Boba Fett Star Is Heading For Young Sheldon Season 5

We're now five seasons into "Young Sheldon," and most fans agree that it is a solid prequel to "The Big Bang Theory." Following a younger version of Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage), the show combines his massive intellect and lack of social skills with a new crop of jokes and a young genius' take on the world around him. And while "Young Sheldon" has mostly done that so far, one of the hardest parts of a prequel, sequel, or spin-off is to forge new paths and to feel fresh while remaining connected to the original source. 

Season 5 of "Young Sheldon" seeks to accomplish that by using its own unique take on an important trope borrowed from its predecessor – "Star Wars" alums making appearances on the show. Throughout the series run of "The Big Bang Theory," Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and James Earl Jones appeared to drive the gang crazy with nerdy antics. Now, "Young Sheldon" is poised to follow in the footsteps of "TBBT" with its own Star Wars alum ready to make an appearance, but in a different way. 

Obviously, a legacy character from the original series appearing now would cause a continuity problem as the actors would be a full two decades too old in appearance. Likewise, new characters couldn't appear as themselves because they will be a part of Sheldon's future viewings of "Star Wars." So, the writers chose a more creative way to add Star Wars into their show. 

Dr. Carol Lee, Director of Experimental Cosmology at East Texas Tech University, will make an appearance, and what makes Carol Lee specifically exciting is that Ming-Na Wen will portray her. While fans know Wen from her run as Melinda May on "Agents of Shield" (or if you reach really far back to the '90s, "Street Fighter"), she is now most recognizable as Fennec Shand on Disney+'s "The Book of Bobba Fett."

Seeing Wen in a sitcom isn't new; she made appearances in "Two and a Half Men" and "George Lopez." She sat down with TV Insider and had this to say about her upcoming appearance. "I was really looking forward to it because I try to infuse as much comedy into all my characters as possible, even with Fennec," the actress said. "I love it when the fans are telling me that they're laughing at this line or the relationship that I have with Boba. It just makes the character so much more interesting." 

Wen's appearance just might open the door for other "Star Wars" alums (Timothy Olyphant, anyone??) to cameo sometime soon.