'Firebuds' Creator Craig Gerber Celebrates Final Episode Delivery; Disney Jr. Series To End After Three Seasons

The third and final season will premiere in the fall as season two finishes in the spring

Back in August, it was announced that Disney Jr. was bringing back Sofia the First, one of the most popular series in the Junior era, by greenlighting a new follow-up series, Sofia the First: Royal Magic. Original series creator Craig Gerber, who also created its spinoff Elena of Avalor, would be returning in the roles of creator and executive producer under his development deal. After Elena ended in 2020, Gerber stayed with Disney Junior to create Firebuds, which premiered in September 2022. There, he grew a rapport with several staff members, co-executive producer and story editor Krystal Banzon, supervising director Kris Wimberly and producer Craig Simpson, all named to be coming over to Royal Magic. So with a significant handful of creatives moving on, what’s going to happen to Firebuds? Well, as it turns out, exactly the first option you’d expect. Gerber posted to his Instagram late Thursday evening confirming that indeed the series was coming to its end.

Gerber wrote marking his final episode delivery “Today we delivered the final episode of #firebuds. What an incredible journey it was with a cast and crew that was so supportive, caring, and talented, it made every day fun even when we were faced with a mountain of work. I will miss working with them most of all. Together we made 60 eps (each containing 2 stories) which is a long run these days. The rest of S2 airs in the spring and S3 will come out this fall on disneyplus and disneyjr. Thank you to everyone who helped make it and helped watch it. Firebuds forever! 🔥❤️”

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Now, as someone who sees that the series has aired 47 half hours across two seasons so far, last airing two in October, it leaves any observer wondering how it could only be ending on 60 episodes. I doubt the man miscounted his baby. Maybe there’s two more second season episodes, and the crew was only given a ten-episode final season. It certainly remains to be seen when the fall comes. And hey, 60 was a typical stopping point in kids TV. To some extent it still might be. As far as ending this fall, it seems like, as with Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures and even Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur for the bigger kids, the final batch can land on Disney Jr. and Disney+ at the same time, but on Disney+ it’s all at once while Disney Jr. airs them at a normal weekly rate.

Firebuds’s logline describes that it takes place in a world where human and talking cars co-exist. There, a group of kids and their rescue vehicle buddies go through the communities of Gearbox Grove and Motopolis and help keep them safe from danger. The cast consists of Bo Bayani, voiced by Declan Whaley, the Jewish Filipino-American aspiring firefighter who leads the team, his hyperactive firetruck “vroom-mate” Flash Fireson currently voiced by Carter Jones. There’s Violet Vega-Vaughn, the Japanese-American gymnastics-loving aspiring paramedic and speed demon voiced by Vivian Vencer, and her carkour-loving ambulance vroom-mate Axl Ambrose voiced by Lily Sanfelippo, as well as Jayden Jones, a black inventor with an affinity for food who aspires to be a cop, voiced by JeCobi Swain, along with his rule-abiding, police car vroom-mate Piston Porter, voiced by Caleb Paddock. The humans have parents in recurring roles voiced by the likes of Lou Diamond Phillips, Yvette Nicole Brown, Melissa Rauch and Natalie Morales.

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