Has 2020 seen a more compelling rags to riches story than that of Sonic The Hedgehog? The live-action adaptation of the classic SEGA franchise managed to frighten and repulse all of us with a disastrous debut trailer back in 2019 thanks to a design that looked more Steve Buscemi's fursona than the lovable cartoon hedgehog we all know and love.
So SEGA and Paramount took the many (many) criticisms on board, and came back with a redesign that didn't make small children want to run away screaming. Sonic The Hedgehog sped into cinemas in February 2020. And you know what? It was good.
Without the cursed original design hanging over us, we could enjoy Ben Scwartz's excellent performance as Sonic. We could bask in the comfort of Jim Carrey's vintage Carrey performance as Doctor Robotoknik. And we could laugh at the multitude of dumb, family friendly jokes. I'd go back for more, and given that the movie enjoyed the most successful box office opening of any big-screen video game adaptation to date, I bet you'd go back too.
Good news then, as just a few months after Paramount officially confirmed that Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was in development, we now have a release date. Deadline has reported on Paramount's release schedule for the next couple of years, and it looks the blue blur is all set to return to cinemas on April 8th, 2022.
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That's a bit of a wait, but hopefully it gives director Jeff Fowler and his team enough time to improve on everything that made the first film so much fun. In other words, just give us more Sonic and Robotnik bickering, please and thank you.
It's very early days for the project, so we can't be sure what the plot will entail or who's coming back for it. However, we can probably expect Ben Schwartz, James Marsden and Jim Carrey to come back. Schwartz retweeted the sequel announcement, so it's a safe bet that he's up for round two.
Similarly, Carrey has actually already expressed an interest in returning as Robotnik. The last film's climax saw him stranded on a strange mushroom were he vowed to return to Earth and find his revenge. I'd imagine he'll do just that.
"I wouldn't mind going to do another one," Carrey explained during an interview ahead of the movie's release. "Because it was so much fun, first of all, and a real challenge to try to convince people that I have a triple-digit IQ... There is so much room, you know, Robotnik has not reached his apotheosis."
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Of course, we can't ignore the fact that Sonic's good buddy Tails showed up at the very end of the last film. We already know Fowler didn't want to put too much from the video games in the first film so as not to overwhelm the general audience, but here's hoping he abandons that plan entirely for the sequel and just does a live-action version of Sonic Adventure 2.
Featured Image Credit: Paramount Pictures/SEGATopics: Sega, Sonic The Hedgehog