In December 2012, several Brony fan sites including Equestria Daily and Derpy Hooves News reported Hasbro filed two trademark applications for “Equestria Girls,” noting it would be used on pony toys as well as dolls and doll clothing. The February/March 2013 issue of industry magazine Kidscreen confirmed that Equestria Girls would be a companion series in which the main characters from Friendship is Magic would be sent to a new worlds, taking on human forms. While rumored leaked images from Equestria Girls depicting humanized ponies began to appear online in February 2012, the first official image of the characters (shown below) was published in a New York Times article on March 1st, 2013.
Threads discussing the spinoff were posted on a number of forums including Funimation, the MLP Forum and the deviantART. On March 9th, 2013, Redditor BryanBoyko submitted a post to the /r/MyLittlePony subreddit discussing the design quality of the humanized ponies, comparing them to previous fan art works. Many similar discussions also took place on Tumblr. On May 1st, 2013, The Round Stable shared a synopsis of the film, noting that it will trace the challenges that the Mane 6 would encounter in a high school setting. They also noted the film would be shown in a number of select theaters in the US beginning on June 16th, followed by its official release at the San Diego Comic Con in July.
On May 12th, the trailer for Equestria Girls was posted to the Round Stable’s YouTube channel:
↧
Equestria Girls
↧