S3 was produced almost a year ago, and it's common for cartoons to have 65 episodes to get to syndication. It's not at all unlikely that the season was well into production with the idea that this was going to be it.
MLP was running high when Hasbro and DHX signed on for S3, the only question was "why only 13 episodes?". And Hasbro apparently communicated to DHX that it was for "special reasons" that DHX wasn't allowed to reveal. There was no deal for S4 at the time of the S3 signing, but DHX would have to be
super pessimists to proceed on the assumption that the show was wrapping up and there would be no S4. Unless DHX
wanted it to end there.
And I think people give too much weight to the 65 episode thing. Just because you can fit 65 apples in a box, it doesn't mean it's automatically time to quit picking apples just because a box is full. If there are still apples on the tree, you grab a new box. Boxes are cheap. Experienced farmers stop picking apples on an even 65 because they know they're basically done for the day thanks to other factors, but they'd like to finish up one last box before they leave.
Huh, interesting. So if S3 was finished with sometime last year, do we think the FiM team has been working on something different between then and now? I'm not too clear on what kind of time period it takes to get a season from start to finish.
Do we have any idea when S4 is set to air?
Roughly...
-First they do all the business stuff in getting the next season confirmed.
-Then they come up with basic ideas for the episodes.
-Then the writers run off and write episodes based on those ideas.
-Then artists like Sibsy work with directors to draw up the storyboards, which "direct" the episode and translate the script's words into visuals.
-Voices get recorded with the help of scripts and storyboards and directors.
-The storyboards go to Top Draw in the Philippines to get fully animated.
Lauren Faust quit the show and Jayson Thiessen took her place during S2's production, and IIRC all of the S2 scripts were written and she had seen some storyboards. At this point, S1 hadn't yet finished airing on TV, and she held off on letting people know she left because she didn't want to cause any interruption for the viewers.
The S3 voice acting started recording when S2 had barely started airing.
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/11/tara-strong-confirmed-season-three.html
Basically, the show starts airing after a few episodes have been animated 100%, but not all of them. The animators keep working away slowly while we watch the show and gain on them. But they should finish their job before the season ends.
And while the animators are working on one season, the business and writing and voice acting are all getting a jump on the next season, behind the scenes. On one end of production, they can be a year ahead of us. On the other, we're biting their heels.
Jayson Thiessen and DHX were probably working on the business side of getting "Human Ponies: The Movie" made while we were watching the first Discord episode, which as you may recall, was made by Lauren Faust as part of season 1, and while we were wondering if the show could ever be the same without Lauren.
