2022 is shaping up to be perhaps the biggest year for Sonic the Hedgehog yet! He’s got a second movie that is to be released next month, a new Netflix series titled Sonic Prime to debut sometime this year, a new Sonic remaster of the classic era games called Sonic Origins, and the next big 3D main entry in the franchise, Sonic Frontiers, scheduled to hit stores this holiday season! And with the recent announcements of a third movie in the works along with a new Paramount Plus series with fan-favorite Knuckles the Echidna, the future seems quite loaded for the speedy blue blur.
Whenever you talk about Sonic the Hedgehog, it always starts off with that same, boring monotone line of dialogue about how the franchise was once a big thing but has now long lost it’s way. The repetitive, tiresome, preachy take of “Modern Sonic bad, Classic Sonic Good” Blah blah blah. That constant same mumble jumble over and over with what seem like at least the past two decades. Even when a Sonic game or medium comes out that’s actually good, that always tends to get brush off and the media immediately retreats back to it’s “Sonic sucks!” narrative yet again. Or in the case of Gamespot, those are just delusions!
Or in the case of IGN, Sonic was never good to begin with!
I’m not gonna go into how right or wrong those people are but unfortunately, that has been the reputation with this series for quite some. However, if what SEGA plans for 2022 for Sonic is any indication, they are looking to change that narrative in a massive way. The exact way they plan on doing that is by taking their most beloved/infamous mascot from a traditional gaming franchise to now a multimedia franchise!
Granted, this won’t be the first time that SEGA has tried to do that with Sonic. Back in 2014, (which SEGA did actually initially hype of as “the year of Sonic”, they were looking to expand Sonic onto other forms of media in the series spin-off, Sonic Boom. Sonic Boom took a new direction with the franchise and acted as a departure from it’s own existed canon. It focused on five main characters most well-known by fans of the franchise, those being Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Dr. Eggman (Yes, I know he’s actually Robotnik but I’m calling him Eggman, damn it!) along with a couple of fan-favorite characters along the way like Shadow and Metal Sonic. Every one of them got redesigns with Knuckles looking buffer than ever, Eggman looking thinner than ever, and Sonic actually having blue arms for once. It was set in a distinct world separate from the main series, introduces original characters, most notably Sticks the Badger, and was promised to be a fresh start for the series along with giving it a brand new sense of identity. With a launch of toys, comic books, a couple of video games, and a television show, this was Sonic’s chance to jump back into the spotlight in a bright fascinating way. However, the results of this were mixed at best.
The television series aired from 2014 to 2017 with 2 seasons consisting of 104 episodes (all less than 15 minutes long) that first aired on Cartoon Network but later moved to Boomerang. It’s never been established of what the overall reaction to the show was and if it was all that popular to begin with among their target audience of young children. It just seems like a show that just existed and was a thing at some point. For what I’ve seen, it’s a decent, enjoyable kids cartoon with some fun action, fine humor, enjoyable spoofs and simple storylines/messages that you won’t think too much about just a couple of minutes after each episode had ended. It didn’t quite seem to reach the same highs (at least in term of ratings) as the original Sonic Satam in the late 1990s or even Sonic X (Again, in terms of ratings) in the mid 2000s but it wasn’t as low as say, the completely forgotten Sonic Underground. Perhaps this had to do with the rapid reaction to the overall announcement of the Sonic Boom franchise with folks being put off about the direction and character redesigns along with how the Boom games were received themselves, which ranged from middling (Shattered Crystal and Fire & Ice) to awful (Rise of Lyric).
Looking back on it, I don’t think the Boom series was quite the success that SEGA was hoping for in the grand scheme of things. It didn’t seem like it was as memorable of the series to this generation of millennials as Satam and X was to their generations. It’s hard to consider it a failure but it’s also hard to claim it was a hit either. Regardless, it’s look as though SEGA is looking to take it all one step further with what they are planning for Sonic for not just this year but for the near future.
It’s no secret that the Sonic the Hedgehog live-action movie was a big success for SEGA. Despite not making quite as bit of money at the box office as it could have due to the movie coming out just before Covid hit, it definitely was something that both fans and movie goers thoroughly enjoyed. Because of that, SEGA knows they got a big hit on their hands and want to ride that success train for as long as they possibly can. The best way to do this is to introduce these newcomers into the series with an expanding library choice of content. From the movies to shows to video games, no doubt SEGA wants to make new fans feel right at home.
For those that enjoyed the first Sonic movie, they got a second one to look forward and if they like that one too, there will be a third one on the horizon. For those that happen to enjoy Idris Elba’s Knuckles in the second one, then they got a brand new series just about him in the works. For those that enjoy the movies’ overall characters, callbacks, references, and lore from the games, they now have a new remaster of the original Sonic games on the way so they can get the characters, callbacks, references, and lore for next time. For those that want to see Sonic in a strictly new animated show that will put it’s own spin in the soon-to-be massively overdone multiverse concept, you got a new, original Netflix series coming soon. For those who want to experience a brand new Sonic game which perhaps will shape the direction of the franchise in the same way that Sonic Adventure and Sonic Colors did, they have a new game coming out developed by Sonic Team that they can ask Santa for Christmas. And heck, I’m pretty sure that there’s some good comic storylines by Archie that perhaps might even give you more respect for the Sonic characters than you had for the games or shows (Just avoid anything from Ken Penders!). All of this and more shows that SEGA desires for the 2020s is to have Sonic the Hedgehog be seen as more than just a gaming franchise still clinging onto the past, it’s now an expanding franchise that is looking strictly into the future across many mediums.
We all don’t know for certain if this will all work out in the long run. I imagine that SEGA has been trying to do something like this for the last two decades now but never have been able to find that one successful piece big enough to start building their own glorious puzzle up until now. There’s also the concern about how focusing on so many different things at the same time can lead to truly messy results (kinda like with the last several years with Sonic Team). No one can predict the future because as we all know, the future is not set in stone.
The first Sonic movie gave the franchise another leash on life in a way that no other Sonic media has ever had. At least now, there’s a chance to take advantage of this opportunity to build on something special and redefine Sonic in ways that are unimaginable. If SEGA wants Sonic to be anywhere near as popular as he once was, then they better coast on the success that they have right now and have all forms of good content for the foreseeable future. It’s only then that we will all be able to look back in how a change in a movie character design was able to change the franchise for the better. Not just by delivering a movie that this generation can look back on as the moment that they truly knew Sonic the Hedgehog, but the one that the blue blur was no longer seen as a slumping gaming series, but so much more.
Sonic’s future is in your hands now, SEGA! Don’t smurf it up!
Release Dates:
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will release in theaters on April 8th.
Sonic Prime, Origins, and Frontiers have not gotten official release dates yet but they have all been confirmed to come out sometime this year in 2022.
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