If you’ve been online at all this week, you’ve likely seen and heard about the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer. After tons of leaks showcasing the character’s look, we have finally seen the character in motion and people are not happy… at all.
In the film’s first trailer, Sonic the Hedgehog has a look that slightly resembles the iconic Sega mascot but only if it were made by someone who just had a rough idea of what Sonic looked like. Chalking it up to making him fit in the live action world, the film’s creators have given him much smaller eyes, human-esque teeth, a long, lanky body, removed his signature white gloves, and made other small changes.
Sonic fans and other people were noticeably unnerved by the blue critter, making memes and jokes to dunk on Sonic. After enough vocal backlash, the director of the Sonic the Hedgehog film, Jeff Fowler, has addressed the controversy and vowed to make changes to his look before release.
“The message is loud and clear,” he said. “You aren’t happy with the design & you want changes. It’s going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be.”
Sonic the Hedgehog is scheduled to release in November so it’s unclear if the film will suffer a delay to allow the special effects team time to rework his scenes. It’s also unclear how significant these changes will be but they seem to want to make Sonic the best he can be.
Fans still have other problems with the film that seemingly wouldn’t be able to be fixed in post-production. Sonic has Doctor Strange-esque powers which lets him to open portals with the classic gold rings, the humor is very flat, and some plot elements have rubbed fans the wrong way.
