Is Bluey over? No — but it could have been

polygon.com:

If you’re one of the millions of fans of the Australian kids’ animated series Bluey, you’ll be aware that the show’s third season, which began airing in early 2021 in Australia, just concluded with an epic 28-minute special episode called “The Sign.” (Episodes are usually seven minutes long.) You’ll also be aware that the episode, and the lead-in to it, sent Bluey fandom into a tailspin of speculation that this was the end for the beloved show.

That’s partly because the format-breaking episode, which moots a massive change for the starring Heeler family of anthropomorphic dogs and integrates dozens of cameos and plotlines from across the entire series, has “finale” written all over it. And it’s partly because the creators of the show — which streams on Disney Plus and is distributed worldwide by the BBC, but remains in the full control of its creator, Joe Brumm, and the boutique Australian animation outfit Ludo Studio — have been evasive about the future of the show beyond season 3.

The short answer is: Bluey’s not over, although it’s unclear what form its return will take, and a fourth season is not a given.

Producer Sam Moor told the BBC, “No, it is not the end for Bluey. I’m sure we have many more surprises in store for you. We have more in store and we are thinking what would be next.” Notably, Moor’s comment stopped short of confirming season 4 of the show, and her wording was open-ended about the format of Bluey’s return.

There’s been plenty of speculation about a Bluey movie as the logical next step for a kids’ entertainment brand that has reached such a massive scale: Bloomberg reports that the Bluey brand is worth $2 billion, and in the U.S., it was the second most-streamed show of 2023 after Suits. A movie seems a real possibility. In an interview with Deadline, Brumm indicated that “The Sign” was a test case for Bluey in longer formats. “I’m loving going longer on ‘The Sign’, and I’d love to try to go longer — I definitely would not rule that out,” he