Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will be blasting into theaters on April 8, 2022. The release date was confirmed on Twitter by Ben Schwartz, who voiced Sonic in the first Sonic the Hedgehog film.

The live-action Sonic movie was surprisingly well-received, despite initial outcry about the blue hedgehog's CGI design. It set a record for being the most successful debut for a movie based on a video game, beating out competition like Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed, and Tomb Raider. That said, Assassin's Creed and Tomb Raider fared better than Sonic worldwide. After bringing in an impressive $40-45 million in its opening weekend, Sonic the Hedgehog went on to earn $100 million globally; both Assassin's Creed and the Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider took in more than $240 million in global receipts. Of course, they weren't hampered by a global pandemic.

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Game Rant's review of Sonic the Hedgehog called it "a fun, family-friendly movie that, while very stupid, is at least consistently entertaining from start to finish." While not a glowing review in the traditional sense, "stupid, but entertaining" was more than enough to keep fans happy, given what they thought they were going to get.

In the games that serves as the movie's general source material, Sonic is an adorable blue hedgehog in sneakers. In the movie, he's an alien, and his original design was anything but cute. It's somewhat ridiculous to say his appearance was "more realistic," since he was still blue and hedgehog-esque, but he had teeth, reasonably sized eyes, and was hideous. A swift revamp of his look made him more like the cuddly Sonic beloved by millions, reassuring fans that the movie might be worth watching. It even has an after-credits scene that lays the foundation for the sequel.

Paramount wisely brought Sonic to on demand sooner than it normally would after theatrical release, capitalizing on entertainment-hungry audiences freshly in lockdown. Hopefully, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will be able to debut in theaters.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is scheduled for an April 8, 2022 release.

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Source: Ben Schwartz/Twitter