Series 23

The twenty-third series of Thomas & Friends will be released in 2019 on Milkshake!, Nick Jr., ABC Kids and Treehouse

Production
Series 23 will be the second season of ''Thomas and Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!''. The season will once again see Thomas journeying around the world and back home on Sodor with his friends, James, Percy, Nia, Gordon, Rebecca and Emily.

Characters
Henry, Donald and Douglas, Oliver, Bill and Ben, Troublesome Trucks, Flying Scotsman, Harvey, Spencer, Whiff, Stanley, Hiro, Belle, Stephen, Porter, Timothy, Samson, Glynn, Ryan, Theo, Lexi, Hurricane, Merlin, Diesel, Daisy, Mavis, 'Arry and Bert, Salty, Den, Dart, Sidney, Paxton, Norman, Philip, Hugo, Frankie, The Chinese Diesel, Stafford, Winston, Marion, Skiff, Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Rusty, Duncan, Victor, Luke, Millie, Rex, Bert, Mike, Toad, Slip Coaches, Judy and Jerome, Hannah, Dexter, Bradford, An An and Yin-Long, Terence, Bertie, Trevor, Harold, Bulgy, Cranky, Carly, Big Mickey, Lady Hatt, Stephen Hatt, Bridget Hatt, Fergus Duncan, The Thin Clergyman, The Fat Clergyman, Dowager Hatt, Cyril the Fogman, Mr. Percival, Sir Robert Norramby, Captain Joe, Rajiv, Hong-Mei, Noor Jehan, Tamika, Lei, Emerson and Charubala are also likely to appear.
 * Thomas
 * Edward
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Toby
 * Duck
 * Emily
 * Nia
 * Rebecca
 * Rosie
 * Ashima
 * Shane
 * Yong Bao
 * Raul
 * Gina
 * Shankar
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Henrietta
 * Troublesome Trucks
 * Aubrey and Aiden
 * Jack
 * Alfie
 * Oliver (The Pack)
 * Max and Monty
 * Kevin
 * Ace
 * Isla
 * Sir Topham Hatt

Characters Introduced

 * Lorenzo
 * Pepe
 * Stefano
 * Gustavo
 * Darcy
 * No.13 Exacavator

Locations

 * Island of Sodor
 * Tidmouth Sheds
 * Knapford
 * Vicarstown
 * China
 * India
 * Australia
 * Italy
 * Brazil

UK, AUS and NZ

 * John Hasler as Thomas
 * Keith Wickham as Gordon and Sir Topham Hatt
 * Rob Rackstraw as James, Raul, and the Troublesome Trucks
 * Nigel Pilkington as Percy
 * Teresa Gallagher as Emily, Annie and Clarabel
 * Yvonne Grundy as Nia
 * Rachael Miller as Rebecca and Isla
 * Nicola Stapleton as Rosie
 * Tina Desai as Ashima
 * Shane Jacobson as Shane
 * Dan Li as Yong Bao
 * Emily Sharpe as Gina
 * Sanjeev Bhaskar as Shankar
 * Maggie Ollerenshaw as Henrietta
 * Genevieve McCarthy as Aubrey
 * Tim Bain as Aiden
 * Steven Kynman as Jack
 * Nathan Clarke as Alfie
 * Tim Whitnall as Oliver the Excavator and Max
 * Rasmus Hardiker as Monty
 * Matt Wilkinson as Kevin
 * Christopher Ragland as the Troublesome Trucks
 * Peter Andre as Ace
 * Francisco Labbe as Gustavo

US and CAN

 * Joseph May as Thomas
 * Kerry Shale as Gordon, Max, and Kevin
 * Rob Rackstraw as James, Raul, Monty, and the Troublesome Trucks
 * Christopher Ragland as Percy and the Troublesome Trucks
 * Jules de Jongh as Emily
 * Yvonne Grundy as Nia
 * Rachael Miller as Rebecca and Isla
 * Nicola Stapleton as Rosie
 * Tina Desai as Ashima
 * Shane Jacobson as Shane
 * Dan Li as Yong Bao
 * Emily Sharpe as Gina
 * Sanjeev Bhaskar as Shankar
 * Teresa Gallagher as Annie and Clarabel
 * Maggie Ollerenshaw as Henrietta
 * Genevieve McCarthy as Aubrey
 * Tim Bain as Aiden
 * David Menkin as Jack
 * Nathan Clarke as Alfie
 * Tim Whitnall as Oliver the Excavator
 * Peter Andre as Ace
 * Keith Wickham as Sir Topham Hatt
 * Francisco Labbe as Gustavo

Japan

 * Kumiko Higa as Thomas
 * Kenta Miyake as Gordon
 * Masashi Ebara as James
 * Chie Kōjiro as Percy
 * Erina Yamazaki as Emily
 * Yoshino Aoyama as Nia
 * Maki Uchiyama as Rebecca
 * Hisayo Mochizuki as Rosie
 * Misa Ishii as Ashima
 * Keiko Nemoto as Gina, Henrietta and Jack
 * Hiroo Sasaki as Yong Bao
 * Kōichi Sakaguchi as Shankar
 * Sakura Yoshioka as Annie and Clarabel
 * Emiko Takeuchi as Alfie
 * Yuta Odagaki as Oliver the Excavator and the Troublesome Trucks
 * Hayato Fujii as Max and Monty
 * Hinata Tadokoro as the Troublesome Trucks
 * Kōtarō Nishiyama as the Troublesome Trucks
 * Takayuki Kawasugi as Kevin
 * Kan Tanaka as Sir Topham Hatt

Episodes

 * Laid Back Shane
 * Wish You Were Here
 * Shankar's Makeover

Special Episodes

 * Digs and Discoveries

Trivia

 * This series marks the first of several things:
 * Gina and Ace's first appearances since The Great Race and Big World! Big Adventures! respectively, and two characters' first appearances in an episode.
 * Knapford Harbour's first appearance since Season 4, and first appearance in full CGI.
 * The first series since Series 18 not to have episodes written by Lee Pressman.
 * This will be Andrew Brenner's last series as head writer.
 * Emily Sharpe and Francisco Labbe join the voice cast.
 * Starting in this series, Thomas, Gordon, James, Percy and Emily gain extra details in order to make them look more consistent appearance-wise alongside Nia and Rebecca. Changes are listed below.
 * Thomas gains rivets across his bufferbeam front and sides, side tanks, around his cab side windows, on his coupling hook and buffer bases, along the sides of his roof and around his smokebox, handrails on either side of his cab entrances and a step on the fronts of his side tanks.
 * Gordon gains rivets on his cab, bufferbeams front and sides, coupling hook base, around his cab side windows, cylinders, smokebox saddle and around his smokebox. He also gains handrails around his cab entrance, and a second lamp on his left lamp iron, giving him the BR express headcode.
 * James gains handrails on his cab and tender, and rivets on his bufferbeams, cab, roof, tender, smokebox and smokebox saddle. He also gained permanent black lining on the rear of his tender.
 * Percy gains rivets across his saddle tank, the boxes on his sides, the sides of his roof, bufferbeam front and sides, and around his cab entrances, smokebox, his cylinders fronts and sides. He also gains handrails across his saddle tank and on either side of his cab entrances, and holes on the fronts of his cylinders.
 * Emily gains an additional handrail above her smokebox connecting both her side handrails, much like her original concept art.