Well, that was fast.
Variety is reporting that a sequel to Sonic The Hedgehog is currently in development over at Paramount Pictures. While there are no details on the plot or casting at this point, Paramount confirmed that director Jeff Fowler would be returning for the project, along with screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller.
Sonic The Hedgehog currently sits with a Metascore ranking of 47. It had the best opening weekend for a video game adaptation of all time, with $58 million USD, and has grossed over $306 million USD worldwide against an estimated budget of $85 million USD. From a purely financial standpoint, the movie made enough money to justify a sequel.
It’s all the more surprising a sequel is being greenlit given the difficulties that the first film experienced. The first and largest difficulty was the initial character design of the title character. Fan outrage and industry mockery caused the film’s initial delay while VFX artists went back and redesigned the character look closer to the original designs found in the games. Then, shortly after the film’s release in theaters, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down venues, which prompted the movie to be released to the home video and VOD markets early.
Presumably, the studio VFX teams will not be forced into a radical redesign of the character again, and will use the games as reference should the sequel make use of other characters from the series such as Tails or Knuckles. James Marsden previously informed Variety during a podcast interview that he’d signed on for multiple Sonic sequels, so it’s entirely likely he’ll be returning. Likewise, Ben Schwartz (who voiced Sonic) would also be returning, barring some highly unusual “creative differences” or scheduling conflicts. The only real question mark would be Jim Carrey, who could return, but might be reserved as a “final boss” or a cameo teaser in a post-credits sequence to set up a third film.
