MLP Gen 6: Hasbro Finally Did Something — And Immediately Started a Fight About It

Nobody expected the My Little Pony announcement at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 to land with this much drama. This is a franchise about friendship and pastel horses. And yet here we are, two weeks after the reveal, and half the fandom is genuinely upset. Not performatively upset. Actually, legitimately processing emotions about which fictional ponies got included in a children’s cartoon. If that sentence feels absurd — you’ve clearly never met an MLP fan. They’ve been here since 2010 and they are not casual about this.

Table of Contents

Quick Facts

Detail	Info
Official Title	My Little Pony: Forever Friendship
Announced	July 24, 2026 — San Diego Comic-Con
Premiere Date	Early 2027
Platform	YouTube (exclusive)
Format	Bi-weekly, ~9 minutes per episode
Studio	Lil Critter Workshop
Series Director	Tayhan Mustafa
Showrunner/Head Writer	Gretchen Mallorie
Character Artist	Nicholas Kole (Spyro Reignited, Disney Lorcana)
Themes	Individuality, self-belief, connection
Confirmed Characters	Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie
Absent Characters	Rarity, Applejack (status unknown)
Voice Cast	Jenna Weir (Twilight), Ava Preston (Rainbow Dash), Kayla Samson (Fluttershy), Kaya Kanashiro (Pinkie Pie)
Also In Development	Live-action film (Amazon MGM Studios, announced July 2025)
Generation Number	Officially the 8th incarnation of the toyline

How We Got Here: G5 Burned Down and Someone Had to Build Something New

To understand G6, you have to be honest about what happened to Generation 5. And what happened is that it kind of fell apart. The 2021 Netflix film My Little Pony: A New Generation launched with decent reviews and was briefly the most-watched film on Netflix that week. Good start. Then Make Your Mark arrived on Netflix in 2022 and started a slow slide. Then Tell Your Tale — the YouTube companion series — ran 93 episodes across two seasons before being quietly cancelled in October 2024. And here’s the detail that stings: Hasbro announced the cancellation on the exact same day the G5 movie had debuted on Netflix three years earlier. Whether that was a coincidence or a message, the fandom noticed.

The core problem with G5, in retrospect, was that it couldn’t fully decide what it was. The initial film set up a brand-new world — Sunny Starscout, Izzy Moonbow, new characters, fresh start. Then the shows kept pulling back toward G4 nostalgia like they didn’t fully trust the new cast. Hasbro never fully committed to either direction. And when a franchise can’t commit, the audience drifts.

So by mid-2025, the MLP space was quiet. Uncomfortably quiet. Equestria Daily — the community’s primary news hub — was openly asking whether a G6 announcement was even coming that year. The answer turned out to be: not yet. Wait a bit more.

SDCC 2026: The Reveal That Actually Happened

July 24, 2026. San Diego Comic-Con. Lauren Faust — the creator who made G4 into the phenomenon it became — showed up at the panel. That alone was enough to send the fan community into advance meltdowns of both the excited and terrified variety. Faust’s presence at any MLP event carries weight. Her involvement with G4, her departure, her legacy — none of it is simple.

Hasbro unveiled My Little Pony: Forever Friendship. A brand-new YouTube animated series launching in early 2027. Bi-weekly drops of nine-minute episodes. Produced by Lil Critter Workshop. Art direction by Nicholas Kole — a name that carries real credibility in the illustration world. Kole previously worked on the Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Disney’s Lorcana card game. He’s not a random hire. His contribution to the visual language of G6 is visible immediately if you’ve seen the promotional art: luminous color, iridescent magical effects, a look that’s warmer and more painterly than the clean CGI of G5 or the Flash-animated style of G4.

The themes announced — individuality, belonging, self-discovery — follow a logical arc from where the franchise has been. Emotional literacy has been MLP’s core proposition since Lauren Faust built G4 around it. G6 is positioning itself as a continuation of that spirit, not a departure from it.

The song “Forever Friendship” dropped the same day. Streaming on all major platforms. Performed by the new voice cast. People were listening with their critical ears ready.

The Elephant in the Room: Where Are Rarity and Applejack

Okay. Let’s address this properly because it’s the thing that broke through into mainstream social media discourse within hours of the reveal.

The confirmed cast for Forever Friendship is four ponies: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Two members of the classic G4 Mane Six are missing. Rarity — the glamorous unicorn who has arguably the most merchandise presence of any MLP character — is absent. Applejack — the dependable farm pony who has historically been excluded from merchandise more than any other Mane Six member — is also gone. And Hasbro has said nothing official about whether they’ll appear in the series at all.

The fandom reaction was immediate and pointed. On TikTok, fans called it a betrayal of the “friendship is forever” premise. On X, the grief posts multiplied fast. Fan art specifically restoring Rarity and Applejack to the new G6 lineup started appearing within 24 hours — one piece on DeviantArt accumulated nearly 20,000 views in the first two weeks. There’s a whole layer of shipping fandom that was specifically upset because Rarity and Applejack are frequently paired in fan works, and their joint absence felt like a comment.

The more grounded analysis is worth considering too. Applejack’s merchandise absence is practically a franchise tradition at this point — she’s consistently the last to get toys, the first to get cut from lineups. That’s a documented Hasbro pattern, not a new development. Rarity’s exclusion is more surprising given her marketability. One TikTok comment put it succinctly: “this white unicorn glamour girl is probably one of the most marketable characters.” Hard to argue with that. But Hasbro hasn’t said she’s permanently cut. She may appear later in the series. Nobody actually knows yet, and the information drought is making the uncertainty worse.

The Creative Team Is Doing Something Real

Here’s where genuine optimism lives, and it’s worth separating from the controversy noise.

Gretchen Mallorie as head writer is a meaningful signal. She served as writer on Tell Your Tale — yes, the G5 series that ended early — but her work within that project was consistently among its stronger material. She’s been with the pony franchise through a rough period and she’s still here. That suggests commitment, not just a hired gun.

Tayhan Mustafa as director is a newer name to the MLP world, which could be either a risk or a genuine injection of fresh perspective. The Equestria Daily interview with both of them revealed something interesting: the team consciously wanted Equestria to feel like a place you’d want to spend time, not just a setting to move plot through. That sounds like a basic creative goal, but G5 actually struggled with it — Make Your Mark‘s world often felt underbuilt. If G6 prioritizes the sense of place, that’s a meaningful correction.

Nicholas Kole’s art is genuinely beautiful. Whatever else happens with this series, the visual direction is not the concern. If the animation quality matches the promotional art — and that’s a real “if,” because promotional art always flatters — Forever Friendship will look unlike any MLP iteration before it.

The YouTube Strategy: Familiar, For Better and Worse

The choice to release exclusively on YouTube lands as simultaneously sensible and slightly deflating. G5’s Tell Your Tale was also YouTube-exclusive with short episodes, and that model didn’t save it. The platform gives Hasbro maximum control and zero gatekeeping — no Netflix, no cable, no streaming deal to negotiate. Any kid anywhere with a device can watch. But YouTube also makes it easy to ignore. There’s no algorithm push, no “trending now” banner, no cultural moment when a season drops all at once. Bi-weekly nine-minute episodes build slowly or they don’t build at all.

The comparison that fans keep making is to the Tell Your Tale model, and not entirely favorably. Short episodes on YouTube work for certain kinds of content. MLP’s strength has historically been character development across longer arcs — G4’s nine seasons ran 22-minute episodes across a proper TV slot. Going from that legacy to a YouTube miniseries feels like a scale reduction. Whether that scale can still carry meaningful storytelling is the question that only the actual episodes will answer.

The Live-Action Film Is Also Happening, Somehow

Mentioned in the same general G6 announcement window: Amazon MGM Studios is developing a live-action My Little Pony film, originally announced in July 2025, with a potential 2027 release. Whether this is connected to G6 canonically or runs parallel to it is genuinely unclear. Nobody has answered that question publicly. Given Hasbro’s recent track record with ambitious franchise expansion — they’ve repeatedly tried to build interconnected universes across their IP and not quite made it stick — the live-action film adds either excitement or complication depending on your level of brand trust.

Amazon MGM is a different kind of partner than Netflix was for G5. Their production budgets and distribution reach are different. But “live-action My Little Pony” is the kind of phrase that requires you to see the actual thing before you can react to it reasonably.

The Brony Question Nobody Knows How to Answer

Here’s the awkward undercurrent beneath all of this. The adult fan community — the bronies who emerged around G4, who built conventions and art archives and an entire cultural moment — have been sitting in an uncertain relationship with MLP since G4 ended in 2019. G5 didn’t capture them the way G4 did. The brony fandom persists, but it’s different now.

G6’s confirmed target audience skews younger. Someone on X put it bluntly: the panel was given an hour at SDCC “as if it’s the next Avengers movie” for a show that’s “confirmed to have an even younger target primary audience than MLP:FiM did.” That’s a genuine tension. Hasbro wants to rebuild the core toy-buying demographic. The adult fan community is not that demographic and knows it. Where G6 sits in relation to both groups is one of the more interesting questions heading into 2027.

Final Words

Here’s the honest read on MLP G6. The creative team is genuinely talented. The art direction is striking. The thematic ambitions are appropriate. The decision to bring back G4 characters instead of doubling down on G5’s cast makes sense given how that generation landed. The “feelings-first fantasy adventure” framing is exactly what the franchise needs to get back to.

But the Rarity and Applejack situation is a real issue and Hasbro should say something about it. The YouTube short-form format is a gamble. And the franchise has enough scar tissue from G5’s mishandling that goodwill isn’t infinite.

My actual opinion: Forever Friendship deserves a fair watch in early 2027. Not hype, not preemptive disappointment — just a fair watch. The bones look good. Whether the meat lands depends entirely on whether those nine-minute episodes can do what 22-minute G4 episodes did at their best: make you actually feel something. If they can, G6 has a real future. If they can’t, Hasbro will be having this same reset conversation in another three years.

The ponies aren’t done. They’re probably never done. But it would be nice if this particular iteration got to actually finish what it starts.

FAQs

1. What is MLP Gen 6?

Generation 6 (G6) of My Little Pony is officially titled My Little Pony: Forever Friendship. It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24, 2026, and is set to premiere on YouTube in early 2027 as a bi-weekly animated series.

2. Who are the main characters in MLP G6?

The confirmed main ponies are Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy — all returning from Generation 4. Rarity and Applejack are notably absent from the announced cast, with no official explanation yet.

3. Why aren’t Rarity and Applejack in G6?

Hasbro hasn’t explained it. Before SDCC, promotional materials including a Hasbro x Kayou trading card set and new collectible figures featured only the four confirmed characters. Fans are hoping Rarity and Applejack may appear in the series later, but nothing is confirmed.

4. Who are the new voice actors for G6?

Jenna Weir voices Twilight Sparkle, Ava Preston voices Rainbow Dash, Kayla Samson voices Fluttershy, and Kaya Kanashiro voices Pinkie Pie. None of the original G4 voice cast is returning in the main lineup.

5. Where can I watch MLP: Forever Friendship?

Exclusively on YouTube. Episodes drop bi-weekly and run approximately nine minutes each — a similar format to G5’s Tell Your Tale.

6. What is the art style for G6?

Described as featuring luminous color, iridescent magical effects, and expressive character design rooted in emotion. Acclaimed illustrator Nicholas Kole — known for work on Spyro Reignited and Disney’s Lorcana — developed the visual direction. Studio Lil Critter Workshop is producing the animation.

7. Is this a sequel to G4 or G5?

The press release describes it as “building on the legacy of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” — G4. It features G4 characters with new voice actors and a new visual style. Its relationship to G5 is unclear and hasn’t been explicitly addressed.

8. Is Lauren Faust involved in G6?

Lauren Faust, who developed G4’s Friendship Is Magic, appeared at the SDCC 2026 panel when G6 was announced. The extent of her creative involvement in Forever Friendship has not been publicly detailed.

9. Is there also a live-action MLP movie coming?

Yes. Amazon MGM Studios announced a live-action My Little Pony film in July 2025, with a possible 2027 release. Whether it’s connected to the G6 animated series or runs as a separate project hasn’t been clarified.

10. What happened to G5?

G5 (A New Generation film, Make Your Mark, Tell Your Tale) ran from 2021 to 2024. Tell Your Tale was cancelled prematurely — with episodes still in production — ending October 17, 2024. The generation underperformed commercially and in terms of fan engagement relative to G4.

11. When exactly does MLP G6 premiere?

“Early 2027” is the official answer. No specific date has been confirmed yet.

12. Is G6 aimed at kids or adult fans too?

The confirmed target demographic skews younger — the primary audience is children, consistent with the franchise’s toy-selling core. The adult fan community (bronies and MLP enthusiasts from the G4 era) is watching with interest, but the show isn’t being designed specifically for them.

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