On the right track
New characters give Thomas & Friends a jolt of girl power in upcoming season
Girls are finally getting a bigger role in Thomas the Tank Engine’s boy-dominated world.
Mattel, the toy maker that owns the Thomas brand, will add two female main characters to the Thomas & Friends TV series next year. Nia and Rebecca will appear in each episode and help fix the gender imbalance at the shed where Thomas and the other main characters live: Three of the seven engines at Tidmouth Sheds will be female — up from just one.
The gender shakeup is just one of many changes coming to the 30-year-old show. Thomas visits real countries for the first time; the animation will move at a faster pace; there’s a new theme song; the characters will crack more jokes; and the narrator will be gone, replaced by the voice of Thomas.
It’s all an effort to shake Thomas’s stodgy image, compete with flashier preschool shows and fight a drop in toy sales. It’s a big risk for the franchise, which got its start as a book series more than 70 years ago. To avoid any missteps, Mattel consulted with parents, young fans and even the United Nations. In all, the company spent two years working on the makeover.
“It’s such a huge shift,” said Kate Schlomann, a vice-president at Mattel. “We want to make sure we’re here another 70 years.”
Nia, an engine from Kenya, makes her debut next summer in Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie and then joins the TV series in the fall. Experts at the UN advised producers on Nia’s name (it means “purpose” in Swahili) and helped select the African pattern that runs across Nia’s body.
Rebecca comes from the Mainland near Thomas’s fictional island of Sodor. She’ll first appear on screens in the TV series next fall. Producers wanted Nia and Rebecca to have starring roles, and they’ll join Emily, who has been the only girl engine among the crew of main characters for about 13 years.
“We have added new female characters before, but I think, with a show like Thomas, they tend to fall into the background after initial introduction,” said Ian McCue, a Thomas & Friends producer.
“Gender equality is something that’s really important to us in this new series and going forward,” said producer Micaela Winter.
Viewership of Thomas & Friends is evenly split between girls and boys, Mattel said. Girls will be in more Thomas toy commercials and on the box. Nia toys will be on sale next fall after the movie release, and Rebecca toys will follow in 2019. More T-shirts, pyjamas and bed sheets will be aimed at girls.
Mattel, which took control of the show five years ago, said it was fans who wanted the blue engine to travel. Thomas will spend half of the 26 TV episodes in other countries, like Australia and China. “One was a little boy saying, ‘Trains can go anywhere, but Thomas never goes anywhere,’ ” said McCue. “That really got us thinking.”