Sonic the Hedgehog's success is guaranteed. The film set a record for the best opening weekend for a video game adaptation and it's still bringing in film-watchers across the world. Despite its success, however, some Sonic fans have some criticism for the movie. For example, why did Sonic the Hedgehog feature virtually none of Sonic's best friends, like Knuckles? Sonic has historically always been surrounded by friends. Luckily, director Jeff Fowler has an answer for those fans.
Fowler's answer isn't particularly complicated or surprising. He says that with the first Sonic film in the studio's plans, the goal was to keep things simple and focus on the important parts. Fowler says that the team's focus was to, "just really try to nail Sonic and Robotnik and just set up their rivalry." That's likely why the look of Sonic was such a focus for the film, as well as picking up an actor like Jim Carrey to depict the nefarious Dr. Robotnik.
Now that the first movie is out and successful, Fowler's much more open to the possibility of other classic Sonic characters coming into the picture. "We can kind of open it up and bring in some of these other characters that fans know and love," Fowler said, "No one's more excited than me to have that opportunity." That's not an outright confirmation of Knuckles joining the fray, but it's a move in the right direction.
If Fowler's word isn't enough on the matter, fans should just watch the movie. At both the beginning and the end of Sonic the Hedgehog, there's clear evidence that Fowler has big plans for the Sonic movie universe. The start of the movie features a race of enemies hunting Sonic down that look a whole lot like Knuckles, and they're likely to show up again.
Then there's the cameo of one of Sonic's best friends at the end of the movie. Whatever form the Sonic movie sequel takes, he'll have at least one classic friend from the franchise helping out.
A Sonic the Hedgehog sequel, which is probably inevitable at this point, is likely to be several years off. Three years tends to be Paramount's production cycle, with a Detective Pikachu sequel likely being on the same schedule. That gives Fowler plenty of time to revisit the Sonic game franchise and figure out what seems fun to put in a movie. Given the success of Sonic the Hedgehog, he'll probably lean toward not putting too much wild Sonic craziness into a sequel, but the inclusion of Tails and Knuckles will hopefully make the cut.
Sonic the Hedgehog is available to watch in theaters now.
Source: ComicBook.com