Even though Sonic the Hedgehog 4 won't be released until 2027, Sega and Paramount have already confirmed that another Sonic movie will be released in 2028. The bombshell left Sonic fans desperately trying to figure out what the studio had planned.
The fifth film in Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has been described as a “Sonic Universe event film,” Variety reported Monday. Even though that collection of words doesn't mean anything right now, as a Sonic fan I'm excited, and obviously I'm not the only one.
Fans of the film have been theorizing ever since, trying to figure out what it could be. The most obvious option is Sonic 5, but that seems unlikely. It would be an absurd decision to announce this in advance. Sonic 4 was confirmed about a week before the release of Sonic 3. And why call it a “cosmic event movie” if it’s just going to be Sonic 5?
Introducing Shadow Spinoff, Sonic Heroes Love, and Silver
The most popular theory, and one that I hope is rooted in reality, is that the film will be a Shadow the Hedgehog spinoff, adapting the brooding character's dark origin story to the big screen. Shadow's backstory was covered in Sonic 3, but if you've played any of the early 2000s games that introduced Shadow into the Sonic universe, you know that things can get a lot darker.
Sonic 4 fails to beat the time travel argument as insiders claim the next movie could be called Sonic CD.
Amy. Metal Sonic. Time travel. It just makes sense.
The term event movie made some Sonic fans think this would be some kind of team-up movie. Whatever this fifth film is, it will likely build during Sonic 4, which would culminate Endgame style the following year. I've seen a lot of people throw around the name Sonic Heroes. If that's the plan, you'll probably have to meet more characters from time to time. However, event movies can be a great way to introduce smaller characters like Big the Cat and Charmy Bee.
The formula used by the current Sonic movies is to introduce new and familiar characters in each credit scene. First tails, then Shadow, and now Amy. Even before this event movie was announced, I thought Silver would be next. A first look at the movie Silver during the credits of Sonic 4 could provide a setting for the time travel event movie in late 2028.
My firm theory is that this is teasing a crossover with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Not only does Paramount want to “Sonic-fy” the heroes into half-shells, but there's also confirmation that a new TMNT movie will be released just days before this Sonic Universe event is released on Monday. Perhaps Paramount is planning some kind of ambitious dual-film crossover. Hey, I told you I was there.
- release date
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December 20, 2024
- run-time
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110 minutes
- supervision
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Jeff Fowler
- author
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Josh Miller, Patrick Casey, John Whittington
- producer
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Neal H. Moritz, Tim Miller, Toru Nakahara, Tommy Gormley, Toby Asher, Haruki Satomi, Hitoshi Okuno, Yukio Sugino
- prequel
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Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog
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ben schwartz
Sonic (voice)
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Jim Carrey
Dr. Robotnik / Gerald Robotnik
