The Reported True Reason for G5's Cancellation (It's Not What Anyone Thought, It's Worse)

[Misty Shadow 8,195]

Recently, someone who works on preserving Tell Your Tale (their work can be seen in the unreleased third special) and has access to insider knowledge, revealed the reason why they are so passionate about preserving G5 in addition to the true reason why it was screwed over according to inside sources. 

Back when we first learned of TYT's unfair cancellation, everyone, including me, someone who never bought the narrative of it being because said show and Make Your Mark were supposedly unpopular, thought the reason was due to some kind of underperformance like the G5 series not selling enough toys, the most popular belief among G5 fans as to why it happened. I was NOT expecting this to be the reported reason, Hasbro literally just getting tired and giving up...but looking at how TYT has always been well-viewed and is still being watched (the official TYT channel surpassed 50 million views nearly two months ago) as well as how an official discontinuation of the G5 toy line has yet to be announced with an interest in G5 merchandise still being maintained, it makes sense. Seriously, look at this. 

https://www.amazon.com/My-Little-Pony-Collection-Exclusive/dp/B09M7JZG3Z/ref=sr_1_2?sr=8-2

This is a highly popular G4 toy set...

https://www.amazon.com/My-Little-Pony-MINIS-Collection/dp/B000NDJH1M/ref=sr_1_7?sr=8-7

...being outsold by a G5 toy set. This is happening when G4 has always been more popular and we've not had any official G5 content in six months. Everything points to the saying, "G5 didn't fail Hasbro, Hasbro failed G5.", being true. 

 

[Starlight Serenade 3,855]

Thank you for the info, Misty Shadow! I appreciate it!

Things are starting to make a lot more sense now when I connect this information with a post I made a while back on Hasbro's financial statements towards the end of 2024.

To briefly summarize what I wrote back then, basically after the sale of Entertainment One in late 2023, Hasbro shifted to a strategy of limiting production for tv content in late 2023 for more merchandising/product opportunities in 2024.

Through Hasbro's financial statements, I found that were using an "asset light strategy", so they were trying to limit the ownership of physical assets in terms of media, but focusing more on licensing/distribution. 

What Hasbro appears to be doing is that they are investing into toys/merchandising and attempting to replicate the success that  Magic the Gathering had as the brand hit 1 billion dollars  a few years back.

There was also an article back in November of 2024 where CEO Chris Cocks himself stated that they "were no longer be co-financing movie ventures based on its franchises. Instead, much of this money will go towards video games and similar projects".  This was after another IP, Transformers, had a movie that performed poorly at the box office.

Quote Source:  https://www.cbr.com/hasbro-not-financing-transformers-movies-is-good/

Several people online told me that I was, and I quote, "in denial that G5 is a failure", but I knew G5 was doing well since their TYT episodes on both MLP official channels had hundreds of thousands to several millions of views for each of the various TYT episodes. Btw that is TYT alone, MYM is not even being counted here. The G5 movie was a known to be a world wide success on Netflix as those details are available.

A show that is failing would not have around 100 episodes in total, that does not make sense at all.

Hasbro's decisions to cancel G5 weren't making sense at first, but things are clear now.

They simply stopped caring about G5.

Edited April 18 by Starlight Serenade
additional sentences

[abronymouse 6,142]

I do like G5, but if Chris Cocks is bored, then success will be a part of that. MLP:FiM dominated the Hub network at a time when that network held its own against the big players (here), creating a lot of love for the brand by the Hasbro's higher ups, who featured it among their success stories. 

Come G5, while there has been some success with the movie, the rest hasn't bedded down anywhere near as well as FiM did (eg, it is virtually invisible in the UK). That's not a problem with the content of G5 necessarily, but is due to many factors making it tough to be the kind of company Hasbro was in 2011, I think. There's so many different players in kiddie media and toys is harder and Hasbro as a company is changing and... well it's ancient pony history  

It'd be nice if Hasbro'd sell MLP off to people who love the brand and can grow it. Until then, there's other pony things

[Misty Shadow 8,195]

6 hours ago, abronymouse said:

I do like G5, but if Chris Cocks is bored, then success will be a part of that.

I believe you misread Shad0w-Galaxy's comment. G5 was originally meant to go on indefinitely, meaning they likely weren't concerned with it being some big hit, they probably just saw it as a way to keep the brand active while giving them a reason to not spend time and money on future generations. They likely wanted things to be that way because of MLP's decline in popularity, but now, things have likely changed because of its resurgence in popularity in China. 

[cmarston1 5,962]

Oof.  This doesn't set a good precedent for the future of the franchise.  It's hard to get invested in a show when it could be cut short at any time just because the higher-ups felt like it. 

Good luck to Generation 6, you're going to need it.

[tomatopotato 172]

A quick google search told me that MLP will be going through a major revamp in 2026. I just hope that this “revamp” isn’t Hasbro saying that they’re cancelling MLP. At this point I just hope that they let someone else (possibly from the fandom) take over.

I was never a big fan of G5. It’s pretty obvious that adults were a major target, since a lot of childish aspects from G4 (especially those in Season 1) were simply gone. But the thing that I like about FiM was the childish aspect. It was the perfect balance: not too childish and cringe but not too boring.

[Misty Shadow 8,195]

On 2025-04-18 at 9:18 AM, abronymouse said:

I do like G5, but if Chris Cocks is bored, then success will be a part of that.

Responding to this again, because guess what we've been told now?

It really wasn't about success, he just didn't even care that much from the beginning. 

[tomatopotato 172]

1 hour ago, Misty Shadow said:

Responding to this again, because guess what we've been told now?

It really wasn't about success, he just didn't even care that much from the beginning. 

OK, this is making me mad now.

If Chris Cocks actually used his brain and made G5 good, then G5 might create “marketable characters” like G4.

G4 had no previous context and was supposed to be as boring as the previous generations, and it became popular by itself. So maybe, if Chris actually tried, then he could’ve done the same thing for G5 and MLP wouldn’t be in the sh*thole that it’s in today.

(I apologize for swearing, I’m just really mad right now. Even as bad as it was, the G5 movie still had a lot of potential, so if Chris Cocks wasn’t an absolute idiot, he could’ve made G5 as memorable as G4.)

[Misty Shadow 8,195]

44 minutes ago, tomatopotato said:

OK, this is making me mad now.

If Chris Cocks actually used his brain and made G5 good, then G5 might create “marketable characters” like G4.

G4 had no previous context and was supposed to be as boring as the previous generations, and it became popular by itself. So maybe, if Chris actually tried, then he could’ve done the same thing for G5 and MLP wouldn’t be in the sh*thole that it’s in today.

(I apologize for swearing, I’m just really mad right now. Even as bad as it was, the G5 movie still had a lot of potential, so if Chris Cocks wasn’t an absolute idiot, he could’ve made G5 as memorable as G4.)

While you being mad is completely understandable, both G5 shows were in production before Chris Cocks took over and virtually everyone agrees that the later episodes of the G5 shows are better than the earlier ones. I don't think Chris had much influence over the quality of the shows. What I feel he is responsible for though is marketing the series and it's sadly starting to make sense now why the shows were never marketed well. 

[Brainstorm 4,123]

On 2025-05-04 at 12:59 AM, Misty Shadow said:

While you being mad is completely understandable, both G5 shows were in production before Chris Cocks took over and virtually everyone agrees that the later episodes of the G5 shows are better than the earlier ones. I don't think Chris had much influence over the quality of the shows. What I feel he is responsible for though is marketing the series and it's sadly starting to make sense now why the shows were never marketed well. 

I think G5 has potential, also, I wanna more of Allura's story

[Night Sky 855]

Interesting. The ANG movie and all of MYM only add up to just over one season's world of FIM content. 

I have always felt they pulled the plug too soon. 

It happens, eons ago many Mobians felt that way about the cancellation of Sonic SATAM.

I've been scanning the isles of the big box stores locally, and there is NO Gen 5 merch on the shelves anymore.

The nice Zipp Storm I found was at a shop in a mall that sells stuff that didn't sell elsewhere.

It seemed that Walmart and Target were only pushing Sunny, Izzy and a couple multi pony miniature packs. 

But I think they've purged the distribution channels entirely, and now we're into the dark age.

Hopefully, we won't have to wait five years for Gen 6.

Internal nastiness or gone wrong can kill something like a cartoon or a toy line even in the best of times.

Add to that the Pandemic, the unrest and a generalized lessening of interest in physical toys in the 21st Century, the odds were steeply against Gen 5.

Maybe this unsatisfactory outcome for Gen 5 will serve to galvanize us.

It is in our hooves, the possibility of a Brony / Hoof Sister Renaissance, if Gen 6 gives us something we can believe in and if it Sparkles what Brian Walmer once called: "THE PASSION!"   

[Misty Shadow 8,195]

18 minutes ago, Night Sky said:

I've been scanning the isles of the big box stores locally, and there is NO Gen 5 merch on the shelves anymore.

My Target still sells two types of G5 toys and it is still possible to order G5 toys from Walmart online. But yeah, the diminishing pony sections have definitely been depressing to see. Very glad I also got to see G5 merch sell well on Amazon during the 2024 holiday rush and the peak of this year's spring sale rush in addition to new merch in China. 

[Night Sky 855]

With the exception of Zipp, Bon Bon / Sweetie Drops, and a not-pictured Gen 1 pony, every pony you see here had been purchased at Wally World. 

They had more large Sunny's and Izzy's than they needed, but naught else, and now there's just nothing at all. 

Edited May 23 by Night Sky

[Misty Shadow 8,195]

3 hours ago, Night Sky said:

With the exception of Zipp, Bon Bon / Sweetie Drops, and a not-pictured Gen 1 pony, every pony you see here had been purchased at Wally World. 

They had more large Sunny's and Izzy's than they needed, but naught else, and now there's just nothing at all. 

I believe you, I'm just saying, some Targets and Walmarts still have G5 toys. 

[Casey Pones 121]

I've heard that tv shows these days get cancelled on a whim because executives have too much power.

Or because it's a way to avoid certain taxes.

[Brainstorm 4,123]

On 2025-05-04 at 12:59 AM, Misty Shadow said:

While you being mad is completely understandable, both G5 shows were in production before Chris Cocks took over and virtually everyone agrees that the later episodes of the G5 shows are better than the earlier ones. I don't think Chris had much influence over the quality of the shows. What I feel he is responsible for though is marketing the series and it's sadly starting to make sense now why the shows were never marketed well. 

I still think G5 has potential and can do better

[Lnx1ynight16 1,788]

I thought g5, especially tyt is a cute show