Some Housekeeping

This is Part Five in a series.

So, let’s set some ground rules for what we’re doing here before we get into it.  I’m not laying out every episode of a series.  I am going to give the basic premise and maybe a few story beats that must happen.  For the most part, the overall premise of a series is going to be the same as what’s come before.  That doesn’t mean the same stories will be told, that would be boring.  I may use an already existing version of a series as a basis for the overall concepts I want to happen in a series.  Again, that does not mean I want the exact stories that were told in that series to be told again.  I may borrow story ideas from existing series, but I’m borrowing the concept not the way it unfolded.

So, we need to talk about something, these series are going to be released on a streaming service, but when I talk about a season, I mean a standard television season of 26 episodes.  That standard season will be released in four chunks over the course of a year, allowing a new wave of toys for that season to be released in each quarter of the year.  So, we’re going to have Season X part 1 which will consist of 6 episodes, Season X part 2 which will consist of 7 episodes, Season X part 3 which will consist of 6 episodes, and Season X part 4 which will consist of 7 episodes.  When we start on a series, we will commit to a certain number of seasons for that series, off the top of my head rule of thumb is three 26 episode seasons, but to commit to a set number of seasons, each season has to have a story arc already planned.  If you only need 1 season or 2 seasons to tell the story of that series, that’s fine.  If you need four, that’s fine too, but you must know what stories you’re going to tell in each season before you start it.

Now, when I say you must have the story for every season, I don’t mean you have to have every episode of the series written before it goes into production.  I mean, you must have an outline for each season.  You must know where you’re going, maybe a few story beats.  Something like what I’m doing here, but I’m giving an outline for entire series in one go.  What I’m giving would need to be made a bit more specific.

Also, we don’t introduce characters and do nothing with them.  Any character used in these shows needs to have a purpose, even if they show up for just one episode.  Now, that purpose may be as a background character making a cameo because they end up being relevant to another series.  That said, cameos like that should happen organically, and while the character should be named, a big deal of their presence shouldn’t be made.  They’re there, but they’re not the focus of the current series, so they shouldn’t steal the spotlight.  Connections to other series happen, but those connections should never become the primary focus of a show, not even for a single episode unless you’ve got an excellent story to tell that relies on those connections.

Also, we’re going to go into a lot of background detail in these outlines most likely.  Most of it will not end up in the show.  It will be information the writers know and imply to the audience, but never outright state.  Just because we know a bit of background information doesn’t mean we have to inform the audience of that background information.  If they ask at a Con or something, the answer can be given, but we don’t need to tell the audience everything explicitly in the show.

The question is probably coming up why split a 26-episode season into four parts.  That way new episodes drop every quarter, allowing you to release new figures for the line every quarter.  Another question is how there will be enough stock of figures in stores when a season drops when the figures are being 3D printed rather than injection molded.  Development of a series takes two years.  The first year is all planning, finalizing designs and writing scripts.  The second year, episodes get made.  That gives a year when you have finalized designs to print enough figures for the initial launch and would allow you to see how well they are selling and if investment in injection molding tooling would be wise based on a strong enough demand.

Now, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, this Hasbroverse is more expansive than you think, and includes some franchises you aren’t expecting.  I think we’ve laid enough groundwork.  The Transformers are coming up next.