So, I was watching some YouTube videos from TJOmega in which he mentioned, in each video, that EarthSpark's cartoon had been canceled, and I'm like "When was this confirmed?" I've looked around and have found no such declaration from any credible sources. So then, why do he and so many other people think EarthSpark is over? Well, I think I may have found what's brought about the confusion.
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Back in mid-May 2024, there was a rumor floating around that EarthSpark would be canceled after its second season, which was reported both here on Seibertron and on TFW2005:
https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/rumour-transformers-earthspark-to-be-cancelled-replaced-by-new-transformers-animated-show/48175/https://news.tfw2005.com/2024/05/16/rumor-earthspark-to-be-cancelled-after-season-2-replaced-with-new-tf-series-511669However, this rumor was based purely on speculation, as there were rumblings of yet another TF cartoon being made (which we now know to be Cyberworld) and the people who initially spread this rumor were assuming that the new show might possibly be a tie-in with TF One, as said movie was still coming soon at the time and the true nature of Cyberworld being a YouTube show of short episodes was not yet known at the time of this rumor's initial spreading.
Near the end of May 2024, however, a follow up story was posted here on Seibertron attempting to clarify some things, as the rumor had grown exponentially and the staff wanted to clear up some misinformation, specifying that Paramount had indeed ordered two seasons of EarthSpark and there was no official confirmation of what, if anything, was to come of the show beyond that initial order:
https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/clarifying-some-tf-earthspark-misinformation-whats-cancelled-whats-not-and-whats-exclusive/48193/Still, despite this attempt to play damage control on this site, the rumor persisted elsewhere, as TFW continued to post doomsaying news posts about EarthSpark's imminent demise:
https://news.tfw2005.com/2024/06/19/rumor-earthspark-replacement-line-solicited-to-retailers-513855And keep in mind that this one was made before EarthSpark's second season was even released! Meaning they were saying Season 2 was the end before the so-called "Season 3" (as Paramount+ labels it) was even known about!
This next one in particular made explicit claim that Cyberworld would be EarthSpark's "replacement", as though it were impossible for the two to coexist despite one being a Paramount+/Nickelodeon show with full-length episodes and the other being a YouTube show with short episodes (which, again, was not yet known at the time this post was made, so more assumptions were being made without any actual facts):
https://news.tfw2005.com/2024/08/25/earthspark-replacement-series-listings-found-transformers-cyberworld-519436So, everyone who saw these kinds of news posts and didn't understand the difference between a confirmed fact and an unconfirmed rumor took them at face value and ran with the notion that EarthSpark is dead and canceled, long before it was ever made clear that Cyberworld is a completely different beast (so to speak) from EarthSpark.
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As for the future of EarthSpark's cartoon itself, well, while it does seem that there were certain plans for the show that have since changed over time, it doesn't seem to be all doom and gloom as people are saying.
According to this now outdated (as you can see Reactivate featured here before it was canceled) annual quarterly report from Hasbro, the initial plan was to release Season 2 of EarthSpark in two batches in 2024 (which did happen), one batch in 2025 (which has yet to happen), and a fourth batch in 2026 (which... wait, why a fourth batch?):
But around August 2024, a new quarterly report updated these plans to instead say that we would be getting more EarthSpark stuff in the first quarter of 2025 (and, well, more toys and stuff were definitely on the shelves during that time) and that some "S2 Specials" for EarthSpark would be released later in the final quarter of the year
after the launch of Cyberworld in the third quarter,
coexisting with more Cyberworld stuff in the final quarter:
What's more, around the same time in August 2024, Nick Roche made a couple of tweets that said he was currently working on something for EarthSpark ("
On the Earthspark treadmill") and, when asked which season of the show he was working on, he cryptically answered "
Cannot confirm which season I'm working on... !" But that exclamation point at the end also made it sound like he was pretty excited for what this might be.
Combine this with the Specials revealed in the updated annual report and it seems that Roche was hinting at the forthcoming release of said EarthSpark specials.
And while I cannot find anything else to support it, this Instagram post by Cartoonempire25 claims that Paramount+ renewed EarthSpark for a "Season 4" back in November 2024, with more episodes to come in 2025 (but we'll see if this is the case or if it's instead just the specials):
https://www.instagram.com/cartoonempire25/p/DB7LmUMP_en/
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