Season of television series
The ninth and final season of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, developed by Lauren Faust, originally aired on the Discovery Family channel in the United States. The series is based on Hasbro's My Little Pony line of toys and animated works and is often referred by collectors to be the fourth generation, or "G4", of the My Little Pony franchise. Season 9 of the series premiered on April 6, 2019, on Discovery Family, an American pay television channel partly owned by Hasbro, and concluded with a three-part series finale on October 12.
The final season focuses on Twilight preparing to become the new ruler of Equestria before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's retirement. At the same time, an evil ram named Grogar recruits Twilight and her friends' worst enemies in a plot to take over the kingdom.
Development
On February 17, 2018, at the American International Toy Fair in New York, a ninth season was announced by Hasbro.[1] In a TV Kids Guide by Gaumont, it was confirmed that season nine will have 26 episodes.[2] At the following year's Toy Fair, it was confirmed that this will be the final season of the series.[3] The writing for this season began in late 2017.[4]
In a March 2019 Discovery Family press release, it was announced that Patton Oswalt and "Weird Al" Yankovic would return to reprise their roles as Quibble Pants and Cheese Sandwich, respectively.[5] According to series' director Jim Miller, Discord impersonating Grogar was planned since the beginning of the season, as they wanted Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow to be the villains since they had more connection to the main characters.[6]
Series finale
Upon the broadcast of the three-part series finale "The Ending of the End - Parts 1 and 2" and "The Last Problem", when asked if Applejack and Rainbow Dash were romantically involved in the future setting of "The Last Problem", Miller replied "it’s up to the individual viewer to decide what those two are to each other".[7] When asked a similar question regarding Fluttershy and Discord, Miller replied that it was "open to interpretation."[8]
Cast
Main
Recurring
Notes
- ^ Shannon Chan-Kent provides Ocellus' singing voice in "Uprooted".
- ^ Aloma Steele provides Princess Luna's singing voice in "Between Dark and Dawn".
- ^ Arielle Tuliao provides Scootaloo's singing voice in "Growing Up is Hard to Do" instead of Peters.
Minor
Single roles
Multiple roles
- Tabitha St. Germain as Princess Flurry Heart, Muffins, First Folio, Granny Smith, and Mrs. Cake
- Kazumi Evans as Moondancer, Rose, and Octavia Melody
- Richard Cox as Snails, Clump, and Grampa Gruff
- Scott Underwood as Rusty Bucket, Rogue, and Withers
- Nicole Oliver as Fume, Miss Cheerilee, and Dr. Fauna
- Peter New as Big McIntosh, Goldie Delicious, and Dr. Hooves
- Michael Dobson as Bulk Biceps and Dr. Caballeron/Martingale
- Ian Hanlin as Sunburst and Biff
Guest stars
Episodes
Songs
References
- ^ The Illustrious Q (February 17, 2018). "Hasbro 2018 Entertainment Brand Preview Live Blog!". Equestria Daily. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
- ^ Widescreen (September 24, 2018). "TV Kids Guide 2018-2019". issuu. pp. 64–65. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
- ^ Hasbro (February 16, 2019). "THIS JUST IN!". Facebook. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- ^ Miller, Jim [@TheBiggestJim] (March 8, 2019). "We've known S9 would be our last since roughly the middle of S8 production. Writing on S9 began in fall of 2017" (Tweet). Retrieved March 8, 2019 – via Twitter.
- ^ Albert, Jared (March 8, 2019). "The Final Season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Premieres Saturday, April 6 on Discovery Family" (PDF) (Press release). Miami, Florida: Discovery, Inc. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
- ^ Jim Miller (October 13, 2019). "@The_Real_Jarkes It was planned from the beginning. You think we were going to let a brand new baddie (new to this Gen, anyway) be the one to take on our girls at the end? We wanted it to be those 3 to have that personal connection". Twitter. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
- ^ Jim Miller (October 13, 2019). "@CitizenArtist55 It's up to the individual viewer to decide what those two are to each other. Gotta leave you with some things to debate!". Twitter. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
- ^ Jim Miller (October 13, 2019). "@99akadams @CitizenArtist55 Open to interpretation". Twitter. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
- ^ "Shows A-Z - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on DFC". The Futon Critic. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
