The movie version of Sonic the Hedgehog is 'chill and likeable' but also kinda scary
He looks less like a hedgehog than ever.
Back in December the first marketing image for the Sonic the Hedgehog live action film released, and it received mixed reviews. Many thought it was funny, many others thought it was terrifying, and very few (for all I can tell), fell head over heels in love with it. The image depicted a silhouette of a very buff Sonic, and I suppose no one is used to Sonic looking so weirdly masculine.
Fast forward a couple of months, and now the first full-body, non-silhouetted illustration of Sonic has leaked via a film branding company called Hamagami / Carroll, Inc. Someone uploaded a style guide for the Sonic the Hedgehog film onto that company's website, and while it's since been removed, nothing is ever properly removed from the internet.
That image above is, uh, Sonic. He never looked heaps like a hedgehog, but now he looks more like a magical anime cat. His eyes are penetrating and his fist looks primed to punch us in the face. Perhaps we deserve to be punched in the face by a hedgehog, for all the mean things we said about his silhouette last December. Maybe that's what the Sonic movie is all about, now.
Alongside that image and several others (via Resetera, see below) arrived some interesting insight into Sonic's psyche via a "brand personality" document. According to that doc, Sonic is "irreverent and sarcastic", "heroic and adventurous", "confident and competitive", "chill and likable", "mischievous but not malicious". He's also not on Tinder, sadly.
The Sonic the Hedgehog film is slated for a November release.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.