Sonic Crew head Takashi Iizuka says Sega was planning to finish the Sonic collection solely at one level.
In an interview with One More Game, Iizuka was requested concerning the historical past of the collection, which turned 35 this 12 months.
“It has been 35 years, which implies it has been longer than truly my kids, so I look upon this franchise like form of like my very own son,” Iizuka replied.
He then famous that the collection has had quite a few ups and downs through the years, to the extent that Sega as soon as wished to attract a line beneath it and cease making Sonic video games altogether.
“There had been good instances, and there had been dangerous instances,” he defined. “In the course of the worst instances, I used to be informed by the higher-ups that we should always cancel your entire franchise. I needed to struggle throughout the group to maintain the franchise so long as attainable.”
Iizuka mentioned it was the primary live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film, which was launched in 2020 and was a significant vital and industrial success, which basically ‘saved’ Sonic and altered Sega’s plans.
“The largest milestone for me was the primary film,” he mentioned. “That had been an important hit and positively modified the course of this franchise.”
Shadow was alleged to be killed off years in the past however followers saved him alive, Iizuka says
Elsewhere within the interview, Iizuka mentioned that Sega had additionally deliberate to kill off the Shadow the Hedgehog character, however his reputation satisfied it to alter its thoughts – one thing that happy Iizuka personally, as a result of Shadow is his favorite character.
“Now the third film is out, and the recognition of Shadow has been on the rise,” he mentioned. “Earlier than that, the most well-liked characters have been Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and it has all the time been that method. However now, Shadow has been rising as much as the identical reputation as Sonic.
“And me, personally… [Shadow’s] my favourite character. I need to have extra locations the place Shadow can attraction extra. I need to give attention to him slightly bit extra.”
He added: “If in case you have performed Sonic Journey 2, folks might know that Shadow mainly form of died on the finish of that recreation. We have been initially intending to simply sort of [kill] the character [off], however the character Shadow was simply so extremely popular that we determined to revive him in Sonic Heroes.”
Shadow acquired a uncommon starring function in 2024 launch Sonic X Shadow Generations, which mixed a remaster of Sonic Generations with a wholly new recreation referred to as Shadow Generations.