Bluey Creator Joe Brumm Teases Changes After Highly-Anticipated Episode “The Sign”

Bluey creator Joe Brumm is teasing changes that are coming to the Heeler family, after the highly-anticipated upcoming episode “The Sign”. 

“The Sign” will be a milestone episode for Bluey, as it will mark the show’s first 28-minute runtime – four times the usual runtime (7 minutes) for a Bluey episode. The subject matter of the episode has been kept top secret, but the preceding episode, “Ghostbasket” ended on a major cliffhanger reveal that sets up the special: 

MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW! 

It was revealed that despite dad Bandit playing a pretend game of real estate with his daughter Bluey and younger daughter Bingo, the Heeler Family is indeed really selling their home – as evidenced by a final shot of a real estate sign in front of their house (hence the title). It’s not hard to surmise that “The Sign” will deal with the frightening and bittersweet process of moving away – something millions of kids have to experience during their childhoods. It remains to be seen just how far of a move the Heelers make, what new characters and settings it could bring to the show, or if they will truly get a major status quo, or just the tease of one. 

Bluey Creator Talks Pivotal Episode “The Sign”

Joe Brumm did an interview with Deadline in which he teases what it’s like crafting this mega-sized Bluey episode, what he hopes fans will get out of “The Sign”, and what the future of Bluey will be:

“I’m loving going longer on ‘The Sign’, and I’d love to try to go longer – I definitely would not rule that out,” Bummer said, hinting that even a Bluey movie isn’t off the table. “That’s why I’m very interested to see how “The Sign” goes down with the audience. Obviously, it’s four times as long as a normal episode. Will the audience accept a stint with a longer story?”

Without dropping specific story spoilers, Brumm did indirectly explain that processing difficult subject matter, or letting families know their experiences are shared ones is some of the biggest value Bluey has as a show: 

“Most of the episodes that have cut through with adults are based on something real,” said Brumm. “Usually they’re related to something I’ve learned having kids, or my wife has experienced, or just something I notice that my kids keep doing. An episode really wouldn’t start until I’d found a bit of truth like that. I wouldn’t necessarily understand it and often the episode is an exploration of that.

And that’s why kids and adults see themselves reflected in it. You love your children to death and they change you completely. They pull your insides out. You’ll cry so much more as parents, but there is so much more reward and meaning.”

There are already rumors that Bluey’s “The Sign” could do more than just move the characters we know to a new setting; a lot of fans are theorizing that there will be a time jump with the new status quo, which could bring the Bluey and Bingo into more adolescent age ranges. The show will go on hiatus after “The Sign”, lending further credit that the break will be a kind of soft reboot, launching a whole new volume of Bluey stories. 

 Blumm doesn’t shoot down that notion in his response after being asked about the time-skip theory: 

“It would be fascinating – and we get a lot of requests to age the characters up. It would completely change the show, but there would be something really sweet about bringing through the new younger characters and having Bluey and Bingo at that babysitting age. That would definitely make a bunch of fans very happy.”

Bluey Season 3 Part 4’s episode “The Sign” will air on April 14th.