Series 23

  Series 23 of Thomas & Friends will begin airing sometime in 2019.

Production
Mattel has greenlit a new series and several specials for Thomas & Friends that will premiere in 2019. Production has begun on the 23rd series that will consist of 20 x 11-minute episodes as well as three x 22-minute specials following the recent revamp of the series.

Series 23 will be the second series of Thomas and Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!. Thomas explores the world and back home on Sodor with his friends James, Percy, Nia, Gordon, Rebecca and Emily.

Episodes

 * 1) Laid Back Shane
 * 2) Wish You Were Here
 * 3) Shankar's Makeover

Special Episodes

 * 1) Digs and Discoveries

Characters

 * Thomas
 * Gordon
 * James
 * Percy
 * Emily
 * Nia
 * Rebecca
 * Rosie
 * Ashima
 * Rajiv
 * Shane
 * Yong Bao
 * Gina
 * Shankar
 * Annie and Clarabel
 * Henrietta
 * Aubrey and Aiden
 * Jack
 * Alfie
 * Oliver (The Pack)
 * Max and Monty
 * Kevin
 * Ace
 * Sir Topham Hatt

Characters Introduced

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

UK, AUS and NZ

 * John Hasler as Thomas
 * Keith Wickham as Gordon and Sir Topham Hatt
 * Rob Rackstraw as James
 * Nigel Pilkington as Percy
 * Teresa Gallagher as Emily, Annie and Clarabel
 * Yvonne Grundy as Nia
 * Rachael Miller as Rebecca
 * Nicola Stapleton as Rosie
 * Tina Desai as Ashima
 * Nikhil Parmar as Rajiv
 * 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 Max and Oliver the Excavator
 * Rasmus Hardiker as Monty
 * Matt Wilkinson as Kevin
 * 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 and Monty
 * Nigel Pilkington as Percy
 * Jules de Jongh as Emily
 * Yvonne Grundy as Nia
 * Rachael Miller as Rebecca
 * Nicola Stapleton as Rosie
 * Tina Desai as Ashima
 * Nikhil Parmar as Rajiv
 * 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
 * Hiroo Sasaki as Yong Bao
 * Keiko Nemoto as Gina, Henrietta and Jack
 * Kōichi Sakaguchi as Shankar
 * Sakura Yoshioka as Annie and Clarabel
 * Emiko Takeuchi as Alfie
 * Yuta Odagaki as Oliver the Excavator
 * Hayato Fujii as Max and Monty
 * Kan Tanaka as Sir Topham Hatt

Trivia

 * This season marks the first of many things:
 * Gina and Ace's first appearances in an episode and their first appearances since The Great Race and Big World! Big Adventures! respectively.
 * Knapford Harbour's first appearance in full CGI and it’s first full appearance since the Season 4 episode, Special Attraction.
 * This is the first time that Thomas, Gordon, Percy and Emily are seen in their  Series 23  CGI models. All four of them, along with James, gain additional rivets and handrails, while Gordon gains a second permanent lamp and Thomas gains a step on the front of his tanks. Emily also gains an additional handrail above her smokebox.
 * This series will be Andrew Brenner's final series as head writer.
 * Emily Sharpe and Francisco Labbe join the voice cast.
 * Peter Andre returns to the voice cast.