Young Sheldon season 5 taps Ming-Na Wen to guest star in an upcoming episode as a professor at East Texas Tech. Over the years, Wen has built up an impressive filmography of television roles, from ER to Stargate: Universe. She spent 7 seasons on Agents of SHIELD, playing stoic Melinda May up until the show's end. Most recently, Wen traded her Marvel chops for Star Wars and currently leads the ongoing Disney+ show The Book of Boba Fett alongside Temuera Morrison. She reprises her Mandalorian character Fennec Shand for the series, which will wrap up its run in just two weeks.
Meanwhile, Young Sheldon continues to show its might as one of CBS' biggest shows. The series began in 2017 as a prequel to The Big Bang Theory. It tracks the childhood of one Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage), exploring his relationships with his family and his accelerated academic career. Currently, Sheldon is an undergraduate at East Texas Tech and, unsurprisingly, still sparring with the various teachers he comes across. And as Young Sheldon season 5 continues on, that evidently won't be changing.
On Thursday, TV Insider revealed Wen will be making a guest appearance on Young Sheldon in the upcoming February episode "A Free Scratcher and Feminine Wiles." Wen will play Dr. Carol Lee, East Texas Tech's director of experimental cosmology. Dr. Lee will butt heads with Sheldon, though the cause of their disagreement remains unclear. Based on the first image to be revealed from the episode, though, there doesn't seem to be any open hostility between Sheldon and his new professor. At least, not just yet. Check out the picture below.
For Wen, the opportunity to guest on a sitcom like Young Sheldon was an appealing one, because even while she plays serious characters like May and Fennec, she enjoys indulging in some comedy. "I was really looking forward to it because I try to infuse as much comedy into all my characters as possible, even with Fennec," Wen said. She isn't the first Star Wars alum to cross Sheldon's path, as Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, and Carrie Fisher all made cameos on The Big Bang Theory. Still, for those who have been watching Wen playing up her serious side on The Book of Boba Fett for several weeks, it'll be fun to see her star in a more lighthearted tale.
Sheldon's time at East Texas Tech hasn't gone on for very long at this point, but he's already had some contentious moments with professors. Wen's Dr. Lee will be the latest in an increasingly long line, and one has to hope Young Sheldon will find a way to put a spin on their relationship so it isn't quite the same was what came before. Fans will just have to tune in next month to find out what Dr. Lee can teach Sheldon.
Young Sheldon season 5 airs Thursdays on CBS.
Source: TV Insider