It's certainly easier to anger fans than to please them, so pencil in a minor victory for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. The victory isn't coming through official channels, but instead through a photo of a movie standee featuring the rumored Sonic redesign.
A photo of said standee has been making the rounds, and most fans seem pretty happy with it -- so if this isn't what Sonic planned to stick with long-term ... maybe it should be?
As you may know, the Sonic movie was meant to come out in November 2019. It was delayed after the first trailer came out in April 2019 and broke the internet's heart with its apparently nightmare-inducing take on Sonic. Instead of resembling the iconic video game character, this guy had different eyes, different legs, and actual teeth. There were other complaints, and the backlash was strong enough to delay production while the team redesigned Sonic.
Since then, fans -- and apparently Jim Carrey -- have been waiting for a look at the Sonic the Hedgehog redesign. Nothing has been shared on official channels yet, but this new photo of a Sonic movie standee seems to have fans cautiously optimistic:
Here's another look at it, if it helps:
No clue why this standee is randomly hanging out in a hallway. I also have no idea how official or final this is, but it does seem to be making fans happy.
A lot of fans are just glad -- and shocked, frankly -- that a studio actually listened to them. If the Sonic movie does go with a redesign that looks more like the video game character, as this seems to, then many fans said they plan to support the film:
There are a lot of all-caps responses, and some excited memes. It really seems to be coming down to details for fans, like the gloves:
Yeah, I think that second fan was trying to ask about priorities -- how much do Sonic's gloves matter in the grand scheme of this movie? Sure, it's good to see gloves on Sonic, but is that really going to make or break the movie or will it more likely come down to the script and storytelling? Maybe that's me asking and not the second fan. Either way - gloves!
Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller is an executive producer on Sonic the Hedgehog, and he said not too long ago that he thought fans would be "pleased" with the redesign. It is pretty remarkable how director Jeff Fowler and company went back to the drawing board because of fan complaints. (Taika Waititi would never.)
I'm glad fans appreciate that this is happening for them. Paramount must know if the core Sonic fandom bails, the movie will most likely fail. But there's no guarantee that fans will like the finished design or the finished movie. What if this investment -- which must be expensive -- still results in bad word-of-mouth and low ticket sales? There's blood in the water now, and once a mob gets going, they sometimes have more fun rooting against something than for it. Hopefully that's not the case here.
Paramount delayed the Sonic the Hedgehog movie to February 14, 2020, which is Valentine's Day, but we'll have to see if fans really heart the new design enough to show it some love at the box office. Stay tuned for a new trailer, which should be coming soon to show off the new look ... right? Keep up with everything heading to the big screen next year with our 2020 movie release date schedule.
