In April of 2019, Paramount released the first trailer for their upcoming movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, based on the titular Sega game franchise by the same name. The trailer immediately went viral for all the wrong reasons, mainly the uncanny CGI design of Sonic itself. Fans and critics of the franchise alike resigned themselves to the movie’s inevitable fate as a forgettable flop at best, and a garbage fire at worst.
Now, in 2024, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is about to come out, and is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. What changed?
Sonic the Hedgehog originated in 1991, as a platformer game meant to compete against Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. For many years, it did just that; Sega and Nintendo’s “console war” lasted for a decade, with both companies locked in fierce competition to dominate the video game console market. However, while Sonic thrived commercially throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the blue blur was starting to lose momentum, and his games soon began to be associated with bad writing, rough graphics, and even worse glitches. Sega attempted to fix this reputation in the 2010s, but it mostly resulted in fans feeling like the franchise had become overly self-referential and self-deprecating.
The release of the Paramount trailer felt like the final nail in the coffin for many fans; Sonic was doomed to be a laughing stock of the internet forever, and would never recover to the great heights it once reached.
But then, Paramount did something unthinkable. In response to the outpour of negative feedback to the trailer, the movie’s director, Jeff Fowler, announced that they would be delaying the film to rework Sonic’s design. In November 2019, a new trailer was released, and with it, a new face for the movie’s protagonist. Public reception of the trailer was overwhelmingly positive; On YouTube, it had the highest like-to-dislike ratio of any official studio trailer released in the last three years. In February 2020, just before the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sonic the Hedgehog was released in theaters and earned a gross profit of $320 million worldwide. Due to the unique circumstances of that year, it ended up being the sixth highest-grossing film of 2020, and the highest-grossing superhero film of 2020 as well, ending Marvel Studios’ nearly decade-long streak of holding the title. In March, it became the highest grossing video game inspired movie in US history, beating out the previous year’s Detective Pikachu. In less than a year, Sonic the Hedgehog had gone from a guaranteed failure to an unexpected hit.
Just a few months later, a sequel was announced, and the first teaser poster and trailer were released in December2021. This time, excitement was high from the start and only increased as time went on. In Austin, there was even a mural painted on the side of Alamo Drafthouse in anticipation of the film! Sonic the Hedgehog was released in the United States on April 8, 2022, and quickly surpassed the record held by its predecessor, grossing $405.4 million worldwide.
This brings us to the present, as the series’ third film, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, is about to come out. This film, which is based on the game Sonic Adventure 2, stars fan-favorite character Shadow the Hedgehog, voiced by none other than Keanu Reeves. Sega has dubbed 2024 “The Year of Shadow”, and along with the movie, has also released Sonic X Shadow Generations, a game which reflects on both Sonic and Shadow’s pasts and histories. The game features a special level based on the film, using Shadow’s film design and voice. Sega and Paramount have also been touring a real life rendition of Shadow’s iconic motorcycle across the world, a tour which started right here in Austin last April!
Despite seemingly reaching its lowest point just a few years ago, Sonic the Hedgehog is reaching heights of popularity and success that many doubted it would ever see again. Many fans are extremely excited about the direction the franchise is taking, including Director Jeff Fowler himself, who got his start working on the 2005 Shadow the Hedgehog game. “One of my first jobs in the VFX industry was animating this amazing character for his first #SEGA standalone video game.” wrote Fowler in one post on X. “Twenty years later, I could not feel more HONORED to bring SHADOW to the big screen in #SonicMovie3.”
Sonic’s had many highs and lows throughout the years, but for those who enjoy the blue blur, one thing is clear; There’s never been a better time to be a Sonic fan.
