Disney Fans Revolt After Popular Show’s Season Finale Gets Suddenly Delayed

The Disney Channel was originally scheduled to are the long-awaited Amphibia Season 2 finale Saturday night, but it was delayed at the last minute. Disney Television Animation said the decision was just down to scheduling, and creator Matt Braly assured fans that the wait would be worth it. The episode reportedly leaked on Reddit, but Braly and his team have begged fans to avoid watching this version and to support the show’s artists.

Amphibia is an animated series that debuted in June 2019. It tells the story of Anne Boonchuy, a 13-year-old Thai-American girl who is magically transported to Amphibia, a world with anthropomorphic amphibians. The cast features Brenda Song as Anne, Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar, Bill Farmer as Hop Hop Plantar, Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar, Anna Akana as Sasha Waybright, and Troy Baker as Captain Grime. The first season is available to stream on Disney+.

The second season ran into production delays because of the coronavirus pandemic. It debuted in July 2020 and continued airing regularly through October 2020. It then went on a hiatus before returning in March. The 19th episode aired on April 24, and fans were eager to see the finale on Saturday night. But when they tuned in, there was nothing to see.

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“Due to a scheduling shift, “True Colors” will not premiere this Saturday. Stay tuned for the new date and time,” Disney Television Animation announced the day before the finale was set to air. The new date has not been set.

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Braly, who also directed episodes of Gravity Falls and Big City Greens, tried to calm fans down by assuring them that the finale will be the best it can be when it finally does air. “I know the last thing fans want to hear right now is that they have to wait a bit longer to see ‘True Colors,’” he wrote, referring to the episode’s name. “Know that this is for the best and that we’re working hard to give this episode the debut it deserves. You are the best fans ever and I promise it will be worth the wait.”

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Over the course of the weekend, fans discovered that the episode was leaked onto Reddit. This inspired Braly to warn people against watching it this way. “If you’re a fan of [Amphibia] and you have any respect for me or the crew, please don’t watch the episode,” he wrote. On Sunday, he even shared a new audio recording of Baker as Grime, threatening to take viewers to the “pain room” if they watch the episode before it airs!

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Braly also retweeted storyboard artist Cassie Zwart, who noted how difficult production was on the last few episodes during the pandemic. “Real people make these cartoons, we’re all just doing the best we can and it really hurts when all that hard work gets delayed or dismissed or leaked,” Zwart wrote.

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Amphibia has been renewed for Season 3 already. In a ComicBook.com interview last year, Braly said he was excited about the show airing on Saturday nights during Season 2. He said the show was better off airing once a week than being dumped as a whole season on a streaming platform all at once.

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“The design of the show is a blend of episodic and serialized storytelling. And for a show like this, it actually is not really designed to be binged all at once. It’s designed to be enjoyed over time,” Brally explained. “There’s a long-form story arc that is playing underneath these self-contained stories. So the whole goal is that every week you can enjoy a little adventure, but over the course of the season, as it rolls out, you can piece together this much bigger story. And I believe that this kind of rollout, this kind of airing of a TV show, breeds a real connection to the audience, a real relationship.”