New MLP Movie announced for 2021 (release: US 24/9, UK 15/10)

It's not a sequel as this will be a part of G5, not G4. Still it's nice to see a release date!

 

Well, it's all the right signals at least.

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I'm particularly intrigued by the phrase "the world of Equestria is expanding", which suggests we may not be looking at the hard continuity reboot some people were speculating about. Might we be looking at new characters in a world that at least doesn't rule out the possibility of it still being Equestria?

 

All bets are off at this point as everything that was leaked went out of the window. We're going in blind

 

I've heard folks say more recently that G5 has been "confirmed" to have a different main cast (contrary to those leaks from what feels like seven lifetimes ago). Is that actually confirmed, or just presumed?

 

I think that's based on:

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the phrase "a new generation of ponies" in the synopsis.

 

It's a promising mystery!

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I'd like this to be genuine G5 because it's very encouraging in my opinion. My interpretation is that it's an older pony telling a younger pony (father and daughter perhaps?) about the Mane Six. Whether it's set in the Equestria we know or an AU where the Mane Six are a legend or fictional characters (perhaps that older pony is a Brony...) it's a nice nod to G4 and raises some interesting possibilities. It's also a rather sweet little sequence and has a lot of G4 feel to it at first glance. If G5 can capture some of that G4 atmosphere and pay tribute to its predecessor then I will be happy to watch it, so if this is the real deal it shows promise!

 

Mystery solved???

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Looks like that animatic might be genuine as it seems to tie in with the Kidscreen article. Firstly, I am so pleased they decided to go with a future continuation of the G4 universe. I absolutely agree that there is too much great lore and worldbuilding from G4 to just chuck it away. It will be interesting to see how far in the future they go. Will Twilight still be on the throne? Are the rest of the Mane 6 and other existing characters still alive? Though I would love to see some G4 cameos I won't be too disappointed if it's set too far in the future for that as it would give the new production team some more flexibility. From a slightly more cynical point of view I also think there's less risk to the G4 legacy if G5 is set way beyond the Mane 6 era! I'm also pleased to see that they are intending to explore more of Equestria as that seemed to me to be an untapped area of potential in G4.
As for the theme I'm less enthusiastic. I've never been particularly comfortable with overt politics being incorporated (often clumsily) into kids TV and I'm deeply sceptical about the "activist" politics of the moment. I always enjoyed the timeless quality of FiM and I'm not sure that trying to ride the contemporary political bandwagon will age well, even in the near future... Using media to promote a moral message to kids is ovbviously well established (and FiM made a good job of it by and large) but I think there is a difference between morality and politics, even though the two cross over. With an "activist" main character I think they're probably straying too far into the latter for the sake of appearing current, the trouble being that current, by the nature of being current, doesn't stay current very long!
As ever, it will all depend on the writing and not letting the politics get in the way of storytelling and character development. When FiM strayed more towards the political side of morality it usually did it pretty well either by using a degree of subtlety or incorporating it into the world of Equestria. If G5 can handle it in a similar way and not just try to shoe-horn 2020 human politics into an Equestrian setting I think it will work OK. I also hope they don't adopt the year zero approach of some of todays activist politics and go down the line of "OMG, G4 Equestria was so toxic!" etc. etc. because it clearly wasn't! I am cautiously optimistic from the animatic and the positive comments about G4 in the Kidscreen article that won't be the case.

 

Well, guess that means I'll be disappearing from the fandom for a while when it drops cos I can't afford Netflix since I don't have a credit card. And I don't want to run into any major spoilers.

 

Not bad IMO if it's genuine. It's not exactly G4, more of a spin on the G4 style as we've seen in the comics and really rather cute!

 

Their smiles and eyes are a bit lifeless but it's worth noting the packaging images Hasbro repeatedly used for a lot of their G4 merch were never the exact same style as the show anyway (I think they were weird vectors of Faust's original concept sketches).