Upcoming Ubuntu 18.10 will still have Mayavi 4.5 for Python 2.7 only.

I don't know if anybody here gives the Linux distros a prompt to update, or if it's just left to the Linux distro maintainers to update packages if they are interested, but Ubuntu will still have Mayavi 4.5 in the upcoming 18.10 release next month, and appears to be the same as in Ubuntu 18.04. The Mayavi 4.5 in the current Ubuntu 18.04 pulls in Python2.7 and a set of Python2.7-related dependencies, despite Ubuntu 18.04 having Python3.6 as the system default (it will be 3.7 in 18.10) and despite Mayavi2 being compatible with Python3 (I understand) for some time.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mayavi2

Leaving Ubuntu stuck in the past with Mayavi probably isn't a good idea, since it is probably the most popular Linux by far. It's difficult to get good Linux distro popularity figures (that aren't stuffed like distrowatch) but Google Trends consistently puts Ubuntu at around the 90% mark compared to other Linux distros, i.e. it's overwhelmingly the distro that people are interested in.

I'm not sure how these things work, but I guess it's too late to update packages when there's only a month to go before the distro release.

Start with the linked Launchpad mayavi2 source package page and determine whether Ubuntu packaging is maintained by this project or by Ubuntu maintainers. Confirm the supported Python version and the package dependencies; done means an Ubuntu release offers a current Mayavi package without forcing Python 2.7 dependencies.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.