Sega bosses had been able to ditch Sonic the Hedgehog earlier than the franchise’s hugely-successful live-action film helped change their minds.
That is in keeping with Sonic Staff chief and improvement veteran Takashi Iizuka, who has labored as a designer, director and producer on greater than 30 video games that includes Sega’s mascot over the previous three a long time.
Whereas the thought of Sega ditching Sonic appears surprising — akin to Pokémon abandoning Pikachu, or Mario shaving off his moustache — the Sonic collection has actually confronted some robust years. Certainly, as Iizuka has now admitted, his tenure in command of the blue blur included “good occasions” and likewise “the worst occasions.”
“It has been 35 years, which suggests it has been longer than truly my youngsters, so I look upon this franchise like kind of like my very own son,” Iizuka informed One More Game. “There had been good occasions, and there had been dangerous occasions… through the worst occasions, I used to be informed by the higher-ups that we should always cancel the whole franchise.
“I needed to struggle inside the group to maintain the franchise so long as attainable,” Iizuka continued. “The largest milestone for me was the primary film, that had been an excellent hit and positively modified the course of this franchise.”
Launched in 2020, the primary Sonic film ended up incomes a surprisingly strong $320 million and kickstarting a profitable blockbuster franchise — although its success was removed from assured. The collection virtually failed earlier than it ever acquired began after the film’s first trailer was broadly mocked for its “ugly” Sonic design, together with horrible enamel. In a now-legendary transfer, Sega then determined to delay the film to utterly revise Sonic’s design, guaranteeing it extra intently matched the hedgehog’s in-game look — and the remaining is historical past.
Now, Sega has plans to proceed pushing Sonic additional past video games, even when the hedgehog’s basis will stay on PC and consoles. Subsequent 12 months will see the launch of a fourth Sonic film, a Netflix animation collection is on the best way, and Iizuka has mentioned he expects “some kind of media virtually yearly from right here on out.”
“The franchise itself is rooted in video video games,” Iizuka concluded, confirming that Sega had no plans to ditch Sonic anymore. “We’re simply going to base every thing upon the video video games. That is our core precept.”
What’s subsequent for Sega’s Sonic recreation collection? Iizuka says he has recognized a need from followers for extra “extra emphasis on story. So in coming years, I actually wish to create some recreation that has extra emphasis on story.” Iizuka additionally mentioned he’d like to incorporate extra Shadow the Hedgehog, a personality that he and an more and more vocal group of followers each appear to take pleasure in. “If in case you have performed Sonic Journey 2, individuals could know that Shadow mainly kind of died on the finish of that recreation,” Iizuka famous. “We had been initially intending to only form of ‘die the character out’ [kill him off’], however the character Shadow was simply so extremely popular that we determined to revive him in Sonic Heroes.”
Within the meantime, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 launches in theaters on March 19, and the character is at the moment concerned in a serious crossover with Fortnite.
Tom Phillips
Information Editor
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You may attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social