Mattel has greenlit a new season and several specials for Thomas & Friends that will premiere in 2019. Production has begun on the 23rd season that will consist of 20 x 11-minute episodes as well as three x 22-minute specials following the recent revamp of the series.

It will include the classic themes of exploration and discovery while adding new locations and characters to the growing portfolio on the series. The new content brings the Thomas & Friends library up to more than 550 episodes.

To better portray diversity, the series got an update for its 26 x 11-minute 22nd season entitled Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures that took Thomas beyond the fictional island of Sodor for the first time. It has since been picked up by Channel 5’s Milkshake! (UK), ABC TV (Australia), Televisa (Mexico), TV Cultura (Brazil), Super RTL (Germany) and Nick Jr. (USA).

Other big Thomas news in the past year was that the series moved from its longtime US broadcast partner PBS to Nick Jr. in March, while Nick became the brand’s exclusive US licensing agent.