Actor Henry Golding is set to lead the voice cast for a brand-new animated iteration of Thomas The Tank Engine.
The blue train, which has entertained young audiences for more than 80 years, will return to screens featuring an updated visual look and a new voice cast.
Titled Thomas & Friends Railway Stories, the latest series in the long-running franchise debuts on YouTube on Thursday with a 30-minute special episode named ‘Really Helpful Engines’.
The show will subsequently be broadcast on Channel 5’s Milkshake! in October, before the full series debuts in early 2027.
Golding, best known for his roles in Crazy Rich Asians and The Gentlemen, takes over as narrator, a position previously held by Sir Ringo Starr.
The 39-year-old British actor said that he was in the “shadow of giants” as he followed Sir Ringo and Pierce Brosnan, who narrated a movie special in 2008.
“I think we bring a new spin and a new sort of excitement to Thomas, and we’re kind of bringing it back up to date, which is the exciting part,” Golding said.
“I think some of the most important sort of themes that run through Thomas & Friends really is sort of all about friendship and teamwork, and this series and special strengthens that.
“And I think it’s so important to impart that on our children, because, you know, sometimes we often feel alone, but we need to realise that our friends are more than willing to help. Sometimes we just have to ask them.”
Thomas will be voiced by 13-year-old Harry Sparkes, from Harpenden in Hertfordshire, who is making his professional voice-over debut.
Over the past nine months, the student has kept his weekly recording sessions a secret – telling his classmates he was going to physiotherapy for a foot injury.
He said: “It feels amazing, because I played and watched Thomas as a kid, and now I get to be Thomas. It just feels insane.”
Sparkes said that he is excited he gets “to be part of something which kids from the next generation will get to grow up to watch”.
He added that he thought his friends would be shocked to find out he was voicing the character.
“I think my friends will react really weirdly to hearing like someone that they see every day and hearing their own voice just come out of TV, because it’s not something which you would normally see in school. So yeah, I think it would just be crazy,” he added.
Mattel – which owns the Thomas The Tank Engine franchise – has teased the new series will “introduce fans to a refreshed world of Sodor, while still celebrating the iconic railway action we have all known and loved since its debut as a classic book in 1945”.
