A twenty-second series of "Thomas and Friends" was announced consisting of 26 episodes with, among many other changes, such as Edward, Henry and Toby being removed from the Steam Team to make room for two new female steam engines named Nia (Africa) and Rebecca (UK), and the narrator has been replaced with Thomas talking to the audience (however, Mark Moraghan, the previous narrator has said that he will still work on the series). Series 22 is set after "Big World! Big Adventures!", which came out on 20 July 2018. It introduced gender-balanced and multicultural characters, and features a new theme tune. The series is split into two-halves; the first half sees Thomas travelling around the world and visiting India, Australia, and China, while the second half takes place back on the Island of Sodor. The series was released on Netflix, Amazon and Hulu in the late half of 2018.