Trivia / Sonic Prime

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• Acting for Two:
  • Deven Mack voices Sonic the Hedgehog, Orbot and Cubot. As of Season 2, he also voices Chaos Sonic.
  • Ian Hanlin voices both Shadow the Hedgehog and Big the Cat.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • Jacksepticeye makes an appearance in the No Place episodes as a pirate who is coincidentally named Jack.
  • Valkyrae plays the role of Squad Commander Red in the sixth episode.
• Content Leak: Concept art for the series leaked in late 2021, giving fans a peek at New Yoke City and Boscage Maze prior to any trailers for the show itself. It also gave fans a look at Thorn Rose, the Chaos Council, and a prototype version of Nine.
• Crossdressing Voices: As is tradition for many voice actors who played Tails, he's played by a woman. This time, it's Ashleigh Ball.
• Defictionalization: A few culinary-minded fans of this show have taken it upon themselves to create real-life sea dogs.
• Directed by Cast Member: The French dub is directed by Antoine Nouel, who also voices both Big and Dr. Deep.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Much like the IDW comics, Sega came down hard on mandates about what could and couldn't be done with Shadow, with the big rule being "no humor". Thankfully it's not quite as obvious or problematic as it was with Shadow in the IDW Comics, and despite that rule, Shadow did get at least one moment of Breaking the Fourth Wall in order to correct Sonic about his Air Shoes.
  • Furthermore, according to Ian Flynn during one of his QnAs (BumbleKast January 9, 2023), there is a reason there are no alternates of Sonic (beyond the story itself), not just in Prime but in all modern works in general^note note that out of all alternate universes shown in Sonic Boom, an alternate Sonic was only present in one. He was unable to elaborate on exactly why, outside of the reason having nothing to do with Scourge from the Archie comics despite previous rumors, though said the reason itself is "silly".
  • Per word of the person who animated the sprite flashback scenes, they were under orders that forbade them from using any game sprites of Sonic and Tails. Other characters appeared to be allowed, though.
• God Never Said That: Or more specifically, "Saint Paul Never Said That", since Ian Flynn (current head writer of Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) and, as of 2022, the games) had no involvement with the show outside of being a consultant. Shortly after the series finished, Flynn stated on Twitter that the show takes place sometime after Sonic Advance 3 (due to the flashback to Sunset Hill in "No Escape"). However, many would misinterpret his statement as meaning the show takes place immediately after Advance 3, which is not the case (given the presence of Orbot and Cubot, who didn't debut until Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors, respectively) and was not his intent. As Flynn clarified in a later tweet, he intended the statement to mean the show could take place at any point across the entire franchise after Advance 3, not a definitive confirmation of the show's exact place in the timeline, which Flynn admits is intentionally vague.
• Invisible Advertising:
  • Despite interest from fans, there hasn't been much promotion of the show on social media. The first few previews were only a few seconds long, followed by a 40-second long, and a one minute-long trailer respectively, all of which were spaced out from each other.
  • The show got a special, one-day only, AR experience for fans with an ad featuring art by Tyson Hesse. However, the ad was only released two days before and lacked a proper description, leaving fans confused as what the event even was.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Due to Sonic Prime being a Canadian cartoon and similar case to Sonic X, all-new actors were selected to fill in Sonic and his friends (and Eggman)'s shoes for this series specifically. To name a few examples:
    • Sonic, Orbot and Cubot are voiced by Deven Mack instead of Roger Craig Smith, Kirk Thornton and Wally Wingert respectively.
    • Ashleigh Ball replaces Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Tails.
    • Shannon Chan-Kent replaces Cindy Robinson as Amy.
    • Brian Drummond replaces Mike Pollock as Dr. Eggman.
    • Kazumi Evans replaces Karen Strassman as Rouge.
    • Adam Nurada and Vincent Tong both replace Dave B. Mitchell as Knuckles.
    • Ian Hanlin replaces Kirk Thornton and Kyle Hebert as Shadow and Big respectively.
  • In the Brazilian dub, Bia Menezes replaces her late mother, Ana Lúcia Menezes, as Amy Rose.
  • In the Italian dub:
    • Ilaria Silvestri replaces Jasmine Laurenti as Rouge.
    • Marco Balbi replaces Andrea De Nisco as Big.
  • In the French dub, Charlotte Correa replaces Marie Lenoir as Rouge.
  • The Latin American Spanish uses a very different cast from previous animated adaptations since the dub is done in Mexico, rather than Chile and Argentina (Sonic X) and Venezuela (Sonic Boom), outside Marisol Romero reprising her role as Tails from the second live-action movie.^note Also, this is the first Sonic Mexican-made dub since Sonic Underground and the very first Mexican dub of a Sonic animated show featuring the current video game cast outside Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman, such as Amy, Knuckles, etc., barring LEGO Dimensions.
  • In the Japanese dub, Mitsuaki Kanuka replaces Kotaro Nakamura as Eggman in the third season due to Nakamura focusing more on his health.
• Role Reprise:
  • Like Sonic X and Sonic Boom before it, the Japanese dub brings back the voice actors from the games such as Jun'ichi Kanemaru as Sonic, Ryō Hirohashi as Tails, Nobutoshi Canna as Knuckles, Taeko Kawata as Amy, Rumi Ochiai as Rouge, Koji Yusa as Shadow, Takashi Nagasako as Big, Kotaro Nakamura as Dr. Eggman, Mitsuo Iwata as Orbot, and Wataru Takagi as Cubot.
  • Same for the Italian dub, with reprises from the games such as Renato Novara as Sonic, Benedetta Ponticelli as Tails, Maurizio Merluzzo as Knuckles, Serena Clerici as Amy, Aldo Stella as Dr. Eggman and Claudio Moneta as Shadow.
  • In the Polish dub, The voice of Sonic as well as Eggman is played by the same actors as from the film adaptations (Marcin Hycnar and Tomasz Borkowski),However, the most controversy concerns the voice of Tails where it was decided to hire an adult voice actor, Jakub Gawlik, where he sounds too adult for a character who is canonically a child, and thus was negatively received by Polish fans.
  • In the Brazilian dub, Manolo Rey reprises his role as Sonic as he has for most adaptations since Sonic Underground. Jéssica Vieira and Hélio Ribeiro reprise their roles as Tails and Dr. Eggman from the second season of Sonic Boom. Leonardo Serrano reprises his role as Knuckles from Sonic X and Boom. Reginaldo Primo reprises his role as Shadow from X and the second season of Boom. The major exception is Ana Lúcia Menezes no longer voicing Amy like in X and Boom, following her passing due to a COVID-related stroke with her daughter Bia Menezes replacing her.
  • The Latin American Spanish dub features Marisol Romero reprising her role as Tails from the second movie and Sonic Drone Home.
  • In the French dub, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Dr. Eggman, Shadow, and Big are voiced by Alexandre Gillet, Marie-Eugénie Maréchal, Sébastien Desjours, Naïké Fauveau, Marc Bretonnière, Benoît Du Pac, and Antoine Nouel respectively, all of them having first voiced these characters in Sonic X. As for Orbot and Cubot, they're voiced by Tony Marot and Benjamin Pascal respectively, who first voiced these characters in Sonic Lost World.
  • In the European Portuguese dub, the voice cast features Gonçalo Carvalho and Guilherme Barroso reprising their respective roles as Sonic and Knuckles from Sonic Boom and the live-action films and Marta Mota (Tails) and Luís Barros (Dr. Eggman) also reprising their roles from the films as well as Carla García reprising her role as Amy from the second dub of Sonic X and Pedro Leitão also reprising his role as Shadow from Sonic Boom.
  • The Swedish dub has the four characters who appeared in the live-action films be voiced by the same actors in the show as they are in those. With Christian Hedlund as Sonic, Emelie Clausen as Tails (from the normal world), Adam Fietz as Knuckles, and Jonas Kruse as Eggman.
  • In the Hungarian dub, Máté Szabó (Sonic) and József Kerekes (Eggman) reprise their roles from the live-action movies, while Dániel Hamvás (Shadow) reprises his role from Sonic X.
  • In the Arabic dub, Muhammad Aytoni reprises his role as Sonic from the second season of Sonic Boom.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Sunset Hill's music from Sonic Advance 3 — which was a remix of Green Hill — has been replaced by a Suspiciously Similar Song in "No Escape" due to the rights to Green Hill's music being owned by Sonic 1 and 2 composer Masato Nakamura instead of Sega.
• Shrug of God: Of the Word of Saint Paul variety, since Ian Flynn is only a consultant and really has no say whatsoever in how or if Sonic Prime is considered canon. Ian Flynn stated on his Twitter that he'll only reveal where the show takes place in the games' timeline after it ends. Sure enough, after Season 3 premiered, Ian declared that it takes place sometime after Sonic Advance 3. Emphasis on the "sometime" in this case, as he admits the show's place in the timeline is "intentionally vague" (especially since the show effectively retcons itself in the final episode), with the only indication being that it takes place sometime after Advance 3 (via a flashback to Sunset Hill).^note It's worth noting that because Ian Flynn was only a story consultant on the show he has had little to do with the show's actual production and writing, and he has admitted that he doesn't know where the show is placed himself.
• Trolling Creator: As part of Sega's new "Everything is canon" attitude, series consultant Ian Flynn announced over social media that Sonic Prime was in fact canon to the mainline Sonic narrative, despite just about everything that happens in the show working against that idea. When pressed for an explanation, Ian said that the audience would have to watch the entire show to find out HOW it fit into the canon Sonic timeline. At the end of the show, the entire plot is undone through time travel shenanigans, making the entire story moot in regards to the greater Sonic canon. While this means Ian Flynn technically did not lie, many fans felt as if he did, and were quite vocal over their feelings of being fooled by his vague wording. Following these accusations, Ian Flynn attempted to smooth things over on social media, which predictably did not help.
• Two Voices, One Character: Despite Adam Nurada being the voice of Knuckles in this series, all of his Shatterspace counterparts are voiced by Vincent Tong.
  • In the Swedish dub, Emelie Clausen is the main voice of Tails and also voices Mangey, but Tails' other two Shatterspace couterparts, Nine and Sails, are instead voiced by Matilda Smedius.
• Voices in One Room: Deven Mack and Ian Hanlin, the voices for Sonic and Shadow respectively, recorded the season 2 premiere episode, "Avoid the Void", together. This is notable due to the COVID-19 Pandemic had made in-group studio recordings together impossible throughout 2020, with this one being the only one of the show where the two principal actors recorded together.
• What Could Have Been: Concept art of the show leaked over a year before its airing, mainly depicting New Yoke City and Boscage Maze. While the basic concept and most details are retained in the final show, there are a few differences:
  • Nine had a red jacket and nine actual tails instead of two tails and seven robotic ones.
  • New Yoke City had Modern Eggman's visage plastered all over, and the robots were classic Badniks. It also included a reference to Eggman's classic American design.
  • The Chaos Council looked even more like Eggman: Mr. Dr. Eggman was identical to his modern design, Dr. Deep wore a leather jacket and didn't have blue hair, and they all rode variations of Eggman's Eggmobile.
  • There was also gonna be a sixth Chaos Council member, with it being Eggman as an anthropomorphic chicken-like animal. It is unknown why this character was scrapped.

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