Early enemy Concept Art for the first game, showing early pre-badnik enemies, a bee-colored Eggman, and Sonic's girlfriend Madonna.
Given the franchise's longevity, as well as a notorious history of Troubled Production and differing ideas, the Sonic franchise has become famous for having a huge treasure trove of unused content that did not make it into the games and other media.
Games with their own pages
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Sonic the Hedgehog CD
- Sonic 3 & Knuckles
- Sonic Xtreme (unreleased)
- Sonic Adventure
- Sonic Adventure 2
- Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Other media with their own pages
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Games
- The game was planned to be localized; to do so, the Eggman sprites with replaced with sprites of Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)'s Robotnik.
- The game's theme song and game over jingle were originally arrangements of those from the first two Sonic games; however, Sega Technical Institute found out just before the game was due to ship that Dreams Come True owned the rights to the track (which Masato Nakamura, one of their members, had composed) and not Sega as they assumed, so lead composer Howard Drossin quickly whipped up new jingles in two hours.
- A prototype shows possible cutscenes or at least stills of Eggman viewing Sonic's progress through the Veg-O Fortress. The Machine stage also had a different tune.
- The original name for the game was Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball.
- Toxic Caves was originally two stages - Underground Caves and Toxic Pools.
- There were plans to release a port on the PC
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Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble
- Fang the Sniper was originally going to be called Jet the Sniper outside of Japan.
- Regarding the early version of the game known as Sonic Crackers:
- An early story idea involved Sonic and friends trying to escape from Dr. Robotnik's prison chained to a selected partner. This idea was scrapped early on.
- If you get hit several times in a row in Crackers, your character becomes stunned for a while. Similarly to the slamming-on-walls quirk from the Sonic 2 prototypes, this was cut from Chaotix.
- The game originally had Sonic and Tails playable. The two were scrapped once the focus shifted into A Day in the Limelight game for Knuckles; Sonic's sprites and programming were later repurposed for Mighty.
- Knuckles Chaotix was originally going to be included in the Sonic Gems Collection at one point, but was dropped, probably because of issues emulating the 32X. An entire mini-gallery of art from the game was still included in the Museum.
- One early screenshot of the title screen implied that Espio the Chameleon was supposed to be the main character or a major player of the game, with Knuckles just tagging along. He's given top billing in an early title screen, and the opening graphics to each level still put Espio's name over Knuckles in the final game.
- Other staple mechanics from the Sonic series were intended at points in development; data and artwork for loop de loops and water areas still exist in the final game but were left unfinished.
- Knuckles Chaotix was originally going to be an actual successor to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and be on the Sega Saturn rather than the 32X.
- According to early screenshots, "Nat the Armadillo" was an unused Dub Name Change for Mighty.
- Tails' Skypatrol is a Dolled-Up Installment of a Mickey Mouse title. Early footage of the enemies still depict them looking Disney-like, including the Bearenger boss having a different head that looks a lot like Pete.
- The game was originally intended for an unreleased console with specs similar to the Game Gear. Later on after Tails' Skypatrol was released, it was intended to be ported to the Game Boy as a new game called Boon Boon Kabun with redrawn assets.
- The game was originally called Sonic Spindrift. Although the executives liked the name, it ended up being changed for no known reason.
- There was a very early build to test the viability of a split screen two-player mode, but it was canned as they realized no one could see what was coming up.
- One early build had a crab badnik for Green Grove Zone.
- Through various builds, there were three songs that were not used in the final product, with two of them being used elsewhere. The first song was a strange carnival-like theme that was later repurposed as the boss theme for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1. The second was meant to be Knuckles' Special Stage theme, but had to be cut because the intro video took too much space. It ended up being repurposed for the Pleasure Castle section of Sonic Adventure's Twinkle Park.
- The game was actually meant for the Genesis alone, but when Sonic X-treme collapsed, Traveler's Tales had to repurpose the game for the Saturn as well.
- A very early build shows an unused city level similar to Radical City.
- Snippets by Jon Burton reveal development plans such as:
- The game's original title was to be Sonic TT (the "TT" being more in style with other racer abbreviations such as "Time Trial" and isn't related to the company behind it being Traveller's Tales).
- A couple ditched modes including a Relay Mode (using different racers per lap) and a Mirror Mode (reversing the display of the track). Both were ditched due to time and hardware constraints.
- Originally, the game was an unrelated Formula 1 racer. A new Sonic title was needed after Sonic X-treme was cancelled, so Traveler's Tales reused the engine for a Sonic racer instead.
- The Flame Shield was cut for being too similar to the Thunder Shield.
- Resort Island originally took place at sunset. This was changed because the theme to the level is all about sunshine.
- An older box art that was changed because it spoiled Metal Sonic's appearance. This can still be found ingame as one of the "end of credits" screens.
- Originally, many of the game's textures, like the grass, resembled Sonic 3D. This was changed later in development.
- Tails' original model was more accurate, featuring his Tuft of Head Fur and whiskers, but they had to be removed for optimization reasons. Other elements were changed for similar reasons, such as the orange on Knuckle's shoes.
- Amy had a saw-blade attached to her car early in development. It was used to act as an attack. Eggman originally had a bomb, not a cannon.
- There were originally ideas floating around for 6 teams of 18 characters, before it was set as 4 teams of 12 characters. According to Shiro Maekawa, the teams were: Sonic-Tails-Knuckles, Amy-Cream-Rouge (with Rouge as the Power type), Chaos-E102-Big, Espio-Charmy-Vector, Fang-Bean-Bark, and Metal Sonic-Ray-Mighty. The concept of Fang, Bean, and Bark being part of a team was later incorporated into the Archie comic, where the trio form "Team Hooligan" — later known as just "The Hooligans". The idea itself was referenced in Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania, where wanted posters for each are placed together and Heavy Magician impersonates the three for her boss fight.
- There was internal arguing on whether Shadow and E102 Gamma should remain dead, and whether Chaos was even considered dead at all. There was even a "Shadow: DEAD or NOT" meeting where part of the team wanted Shadow to remain dead and the other didn't.
- There are many unused voice lines in the game's files. Each character has variations of the same lines. Some of the more interesting ones include exclaiming that something is really heavy, expressing relief at the return of a teammate, and talking about an Omochao that has something to do with a "gate" of some kind. There were also tips for the lasers on the grind rails in Final Fortress. They explain that each rail's color corresponds to each laser's color - in the final game all the grind rails are the same color, which is why these lines were unused.
- The game was going to be the first to be rated a T for teen. As such, enemies were going to bleed red blood, the opening showed a G.U.N. soldier getting shot down, and Shadow's flashback to Maria's death was actually going to show her being shot on-screen. The ESRB threatened Sega that they'd slap the game with a Teen rating if these were kept in... which you may end up finding weird given the game was actively advertised as more mature than predecessors. What happened? Turns out ESRB introduced "Everyone 10+" rating in the meanwhile, and Sega of America decided to go with that. The blood was to be changed to green, the opening scene cut out the shooting part, and the Maria flashback fades to black as we hear the gunshot. However, the final game does show a monochrome still image of Maria getting shot just before the Heavy Dog boss fight. The same image appears in color on her card in Sonic Rivals.
- Additionally, there would've been more swearing. The first cutscene between Shadow and Black Doom, for example, originally had Shadow saying the word "hell". What's interesting is they didn't change the lipsyncing for the final game.
- The game was meant to have the voice actors for characters that had appeared up until Sonic Heroes. However, when Deem Bristow passed away during production, Sega hired Mike Pollock (Eggman's English VA for Sonic X) before they decided to hire all of the Sonic X voice actors, whom stayed with the series until Sonic and the Black Knight. Except for Pollock, who's still Eggman.
- There were two themes that were unused and replaced: "Who I Am" by Magna-Fi (replaced by "All Hail Shadow" by the same band) and "Broken" by Sins Of A Divine Mother (replaced by "Chosen One" by A2). "Who I Am" was scrapped due to Executive Meddling from the band's record company, resulting in it eventually ending up as the first song on their final album, VerseChrousKillMe. The latter was scrapped because they could not find the artist's name to credit them. In the final game, Shadow still says "This is who I am!" in every ending cutscene as an Orphaned Reference to the original theme.
- A Game Boy Advance version was planned, which would have used an OutRun-style engine. However, when Sega of Japan saw the game, they insisted that Sega of America add 3D to it while still keeping the same production schedule. Sega of America was unable to rewrite the engine and the necessary features while still having it on store shelves at the same time as the other versions of Riders, so the GBA version was scrapped.
- When Sega held auditions to replace the 4Kids cast in 2010, Ryan Drummond was contacted to re-audition for the role of Sonic. However, because of Drummond's union status and his refusal to quit it, he was eventually declined the role.
- Sonic Generations almost had a PSP port.
- There was supposed to be signs in Sonic Generations that referenced the Archie comics, the Fleetway comics, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Sonic Underground, and Sonic X. Sega vetoed the reference, so they were cut.
- According to an interview with Ken Pontac, Orbot and Cubot were almost scrapped from Lost World and the series, and he had to ask for their inclusion in the story. The source is the interview done by Roger from Sonic Dissected:Cubot and Orbot, yes. They almost got cut from the series. There were some questions from the producers. They were great, but Eggman wouldn't have that kind of relationship with a pair of robots and, we ended up winning the argument because even if he doesn't or didn't have that, you can have it now if's really funny and works.
- At one point the game was going to star Classic Sonic instead of Modern Sonic, explaining the retro-inspired aesthetics, the classic Tornado design, the return of the animal friends, the use of classic enemies, the greater focus on platforming, and the levels' more surreal style.
Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric
- The game, originally known as Sonic Synergy, was designed for an unspecified third-party system. It was not supposed to be a Wii U game, but Sega forced the team to make the game into a Wii U exclusive to end their three-game mandate with Nintendo. Most of the quality issues stem from the developers trying to downgrade their game for the console.
- The first trailer for the game is nothing like the final game in terms of plot. Sonic's friends discover "an ancient land" which isn't in the final game. This is because that plot was changed in development. There were plans for a more serious story featuring a backstory for how Eggman and Sonic met, as well as a story involving past societies of hedgehogs and echidna (hence the echidna statues and wall carvings). It was all scrapped because of Sega's regulations involving what plots the series could handle. The team was asked to make the plot more similar to the upcoming cartoon, which would become Sonic Boom.
- Combat for Sonic and Tails was more varied, as Sonic would use his feet and legs more than Spin Attacks while Tails would have used various guns and other armaments.
- Personality-wise, Amy was a lot more sassy and adventurous compared to her more down-to-earth Only Sane Man shtick in the final game, while Sticks had a completely different personality compared to the conspiracy nut she ended up as.
- Sticks was never intended to be in Rise of Lyric, but was added as a last-minute NPC to tie in with the cartoon.
- The game had a hub world that was cut because the Wii U couldn't handle it.
- Perci is a NPC, but they accidentally left in a line where Amy says "Good job, Perci!" which implies she was supposed to be playable, or at least tag along during a mission.
- Cliff is a minor character who acts as an archaeologist. He was originally an inventor, but Red Button Entertainment was forced to change his occupation due to a mandate Sega has where the only inventors can be Eggman and Tails.
- Lyric was supposed to appear more often. A few references in the final game still imply that he's fought Sonic more than depicted.
- A scrapped plot point was that Sonic was a loner who learned to work with his friends through the course of the game.
- There's a lot of unused dialogue implying a scrapped plane level.
- Sonic has the cut line where he nearly says "shit"."Ooh shiii-ooooooot!"
- An early storyline for Mania would have had Dr. Eggman become severely depressed after his loss in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, to the point that he retires. The Hard-Boiled Heavies were heavily modified Egg Robos who'd rebel against Eggman and do what they wanted to.
- Titanic Monarch has a Egg Prison hidden away. It fully works, but can only be accessed via Debug Mode.
- Egg Reviere has extra platforms and background items, suggesting it might have been a bigger stage at one point.
- Cut dialogue implies that Null Space was originally going to be a much longer area. There is also concept art of Infinite within Null Space, suggesting he or at least his likeness may have made an appearance there.
- When one messes with the game to go inside of Infinite's ghastly Infinite Perfect Chaos apparitions in Capital City, a blue water-like texture can be seen within. This implies that Perfect Chaos would have made an appearance in the level instead of Infinite's Infinite Perfect Chaos, but it's also possible that they were simply created using existing Chaos textures and assets.
- Cut dialogue from the Episode Shadow DLC reveals quite a lot was scrapped or changed:
- Identical lines were recorded straight from the prequel comic Sonic Forces: Looming Shadow when Shadow goes to investigate the cause of Omega's disappearance at Arsenal Pyramid. This indicates it was a full stage in the DLC at one point, and explains why the comic ends so abruptly with little explanation as to what happens after Shadow speeds off.
- In the virtual reality Green Hill Zone stage, Shadow would have confronted Infinite's illusory Rouge on whether she was the real Rouge or not after she mixes up some information about the exact time of Omega's defeat.
- Lines were recorded of an unknown encounter where Shadow appears to be fighting multiple enemies at once, calling them a "whole horde of chumps" and being surprised when they actually put up a fight. It's very likely that this is referencing a scrapped encounter with Infinite and the Jackal Squad during Shadow's flashback. In the final game the encounter was just a cutscene where Shadow fights Infinite one-on-one.
- Several species, including monkeys and dragons, were considered an option for the Custom Hero, but were later removed.
- Eggman's prison was going to be a darker version of Green Hill Zone instead of the Death Egg.
- The Resistance's base was originally set to be in Mystic Jungle.
- An early design for Infinite was of a buffalo. A later design features him as a jackal but wearing a different mask and covered in bandages.
- According to an early version of the scriptWhere?, none other than Mephiles was considered to be a part of the Phantom Replicas. Considering Mephiles' Ret-Gone status and the general mandates surrounding certain characters, this was likely put in by someone who wasn't aware he couldn't be used.
- The Phantom Ruby is referred to in the early script as the Valtron and described as a blue jewel instead.
- In Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, ToeJam & Earl were reportedly going to be included, but the developers could not obtain the license to the characters in time. Vyse was also considered, but the game was nearing deadline, so he was added into the roster in Transformed instead.
- Bayonetta was considered for Transformed, but they couldn't keep her in-character without the game rating going up. Ironically, Bayonetta would later appear in another game geared towards younger audiences, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U without that many changes to her character or mechanics.
Miscellaneous
- There's a piece of concept art of Sonic, Ray, Mighty, Vector... and a bipedal parrot with sunglasses and a jacket named Max. Max's design is reused from an old design for Sonic. The same piece of artwork also depicts Mighty as lankier than Sonic, instead of the two being identical in build. It's unknown when the image is from, though it's speculated to either be related to Chaotix or be from the period between Sonic 1 and Sonic 2.
- Developer Realtime Associates was contracted by Sega of America to develop a Sonic game for the Saturn's launch. However, Sega of Japan did not approve of the deal and thus Realtime Associates concentrated their effort on their original IP, Bug (which Sonic himself would end up cameoing in). It wouldn't be until 2008 that a Sonic game developed by Realtime Associates would be released, the game itself being Sonic the Hedgehog for the LeapFrog Didj.
- In 1995, Sega had planned to release Sonic Sports for the Sega 32X. Sonic Sports would have been similar to Tiny Toon Adventures: ACME All-Stars for the Sega Genesis, having such sports events as Basketball, Soccer, and Volleyball. Playable characters would have included Sonic, Tails, and Ristar. Due to the commercial failure of the 32X, the game was scrapped.
- Climax Studios pitched a few Sonic the Hedgehog game to Sega in the 2000s but were declined:
- Sonic: The Shadow World was a Rivals-style Playstation Portable title where Sonic journeys into Shadow's world, the Shadow World. The aim was to find a way out before Sonic becomes trapped there forever.
- An unnamed sidescrolling platformer was pitched but declined.
- The studio Vision Scape Interactive pitched a skateboarding game called Sonic Extreme for at least the Xbox, but Sega declined the pitch. The studio had previously worked with Sega on Sonic Heroes, hence why they had the models for Sonic and Shadow. The demo was a Dolled-Up Installment of a canned Rocket Power game. The game was later retooled into the PC-game Tech Deck: Bare Knuckle Grind.
- In the 2000's Backbone Entertainment pitched a hoverboard racing game for the Game Boy Advance called Sonic ExtReme that never went anywhere.
- The Christian Whitehead-spearheaded smartphone remakes of Sonic CD and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had Boss Rush stages planned out, with 2's Boss Rush stage using graphics from the canned Sonic Crackers demo. Though they're still in the game, they had been Dummied Out as Sega felt that altering the game too much would be majorly problematic. Players also discovered what was called "Proto Palace Zone", a recreation of the original Hidden Palace Zone. Christian Whitehead confirmed it was just to test things out.
- Simon "Stealth" Thomley developed a a proof-of-concept of the classic Sonic trilogy for the Nintendo DS when he heard leaked news regarding a Compilation Re-release called Sonic Classic Collection (which was developed by The Creative Assembly). All of the games were recoded for the DS, and included the following extra features: Tails and Knuckles were added to the original Sonic the Hedgehog, the elemental shields from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 could be used in the first two games, and Sonic 3's Special Stages had a Level Editor that included two new spheres — green ones that turn blue when touched, and pink ones that act as teleporters to another random pink sphere. Later in development, Stealth even wanted to include Sonic the Hedgehog Megamix in the collection, but he was unable to contact Sega during the first "Sonic Boom" event, and eventually realised that pitching Megamix as a commercial game was infeasible. Ultimately, Stealth was unable to make his take on the collection into a commercial game, but elements of it have since lived on in his collaboration with Christain Whitehead regarding the smartphone versions of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2.
- Nitrome pitched a single-button wall-running Sonic installment focused on vertical movement, which included a proof of concept. Sadly, Sega didn't bite.
Film
Earlier attempts
The film took many, many years to escape production limbo. Unsurprisingly, there are dozens of elements and concepts that were never realized.- In 1994, MGM optioned the rights to produce a Sonic the Hedgehog film. With Pen Densham (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) as executive producer, MGM commissioned a script by Richard Jefferies (The Vagrant), titled Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World, which revolves around a divorced couple's son, Josh, who plugs his Sega Saturn running the ill-fated Sonic X-treme game into his father's computer, which he attempted to use to help finish his school paper revolving around a test pilot named Sonic that was killed in a freak accident (a reference to the original backstory of Sonic during development of the first game), that allows Sonic to enter the real world via CGI. At first Josh is impressed and Sonic forms a kinship with him, but things start to go awry when Sonic ends up causing trouble throughout the city, to the point where it starts to drain his power down. To make matters worse, Dr. Eggman also escapes the console and plots to take over the real world by revamping an abandoned amusement park, turning all the kids visiting there into his Badniks, and then, using the technology developed by Josh's father combined with the ancient Chaos Emeralds, plots to turn the world's natural wonders into digital copies so that he can program virtual reality experiences of them and charge high prices to those who want to see them. Sonic and Josh are chased by the kids-turned-Badniks throughout the park, and Sonic allows himself to be captured to help Josh escape. At the film's climax, Sonic and Josh team up to fight Dr. Eggman, and eventually all three are sucked back into the game console. With Sonic's power now restored, Eggman is ultimately defeated in the ensuing battle, but escapes to fight another day, and Sonic decides to stay in the game in order to protect his world from Dr. Eggman. The film ends with Josh returning home and reuniting with his family, though after promising to put away the computer Josh starts to play his console again. Jefferies had submitted the treatment to MGM before the studio pulled the plug on the project, citing creative and financial issues. After a failed attempt to pitch it at the newly-formed DreamWorks Animation, the film was ultimately canned for good.
- An earlier screenplay reimagines Sonic as a teenage delinquet with an estranged scientist father who, in a freak accident, gains the ability to turn into the hedgehog and must rescue his father from "Dr. Paul Elleson" an Evilutionary Biologist who creates mutants, including one with large fists named "Kentar" (nicknamed "Robotnik" and "Knuckles" respectively by Sonic). This In Name Only adaptation was quickly vetoed by Sega.
- Five years after MGM's attempt to bring Sonic to the silver screen failed, Ben Hurst, one of the writers for Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), attempted to pitch a movie in an attempt to revive the old Saturday Morning universe, this time fully animated. However, it's said that Ken Penders, then-head writer of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), got wind of this attempt and, after initially working with Ben, apparently killed his attempt by claiming to Sega that he was trying to co-opt the franchise. To add insult to injury, Penders then brought up his own concept for a movie in 2002. The concept, titled Sonic Armageddon, had◊ four◊ concept◊ pieces◊ created, and Penders even made a homemade pitch video to show to SEGA executives. The movie seems to work in the idea that Mobius would have been destroyed and that roboticization would be a much more gruesome procedure than was shown in the cartoons and comics. A number of major characters are not shown and a few of them have major redesigns, the biggest being Snively, who's now more cyborg-like. DreamWorks Animation, whose then-parent company had a partnership with Sega, was Penders' alleged choice to produce the planned film (he later stated otherwise). There was some interest, but at the time Sonic X was being made and they felt it wouldn't be worthwhile to have two running series in two different continuities, so it was backburnered, then dropped completely.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (2020):
- When Sega finally got a film idea and clinched a production partner (in this case Sony), screenwriters Brad Bird (who declined due to his commitments to Tomorrowland), Wernick & Reese (who would go on to write Deadpool), Phil Johnston (declined in favor of Zootopia, though he did co-write The Brothers Grimsby with star Sacha Baron Cohen for Sony later) and David Berenbaum submitted drafts of their own takes on the franchise to Sony in a bid to write the screenplay for the film. Sony instead hired newcomers Evan Susser and Van Robichaux to write both the story and screenplay.
- According to Robichaux, Sony aimed to give Sonic a Darker and Edgier, yet more comedic, story-line in the hopes that it would clinch a PG-13 rating to boost its box office chances. However, when Tim Miller, who had just bailed on directing Deadpool 2, was hired as executive producer, a rewrite of the script was ordered in order to make it more family-friendly like the games (the film retained most of its action-oriented material, however). Following Miller's hiring, Susser and Robichaux were fired and replaced with other newcomers Patrick Casey and Josh Miller (the latter known for the Blur Studio short Gopher Broke). It is unclear how much of Susser and Robichaux's ideas were thrown out in the final product. When one of Sony's film partners bailed on their deal, production was shut down for several months before Paramount scooped in and picked up the rights, with production resuming shortly thereafter.
- A very early rumor suggested that Tom Cruise and Christian Bale were being eyed for some roles at one point. It is unknown what those roles were nor if they were ever considered.
- When Casey and Miller were hired, one idea they tossed around was Sonic being a space criminal who stole a Chaos Emerald and hid on Earth. When he's discovered by the planet denizens, he creates a fake hero persona to try to win their graces, but once his scheme is exposed he's forced to become a real hero to set things right. This concept was quickly thrown out on the grounds that it debased the entire concept of the character and franchise.
- Before it was decided that the movie be set on Earth, Casey and Miller had considered opening the movie with a "Zack Snyder-style" Action Prologue where an entire village in Sonic's World is slaughtered by Robotnik's forces. This opening was vetoed by Neal Moritz without even making it to treatment form, and a completely different prologue that takes place during the climax replaced it.
- The budget was set at $100 million, but when Paramount took over they had it reduced to $90 million.
- Paul Rudd, Chris Evans and Chris Pratt were all candidates to play the role of Tom Wachowski. Rudd was almost secured for the role until he dropped out due to commitments to Avengers: Endgame, resulting in fellow Marvel movie alumnus James Marsden being cast. Concept images exist of a movie poster and the bar fight scene featuring Pratt and Evans (respectively), specifically (the movie poster also features an earlier rendition of Sonic before the first trailer's design).
- Adam Pally, who would later be cast as Wade Whipple, was looked at to play Tom as well.
- Though Jeff Fowler and Tim Miller had always eyed Ben Schwartz as the voice of the title role, the studio had suggestions in the event Schwartz was unavailable. Among the people considered as backups for Sonic included Pratt, Rudd (both of whom would've played Tom and Sonic at the same time), Tom Holland, Will Forte, Charlie Day, Adam Devine, Jim Parsons, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader and Josh Gad.
- Production of the movie was slated to take place in Atlanta, but a crowded production schedule for the city and budget cuts led to Paramount deciding to shoot at Vancouver instead.
- The original script that was written prior to Tim Miller's hiring had a moment where Dr. Robotnik makes coffee with a machine he affectionately refers to as the "Mean Bean Machine." The scene was rewritten in the final film to where Robotnik gets a Large Ham moment when Agent Stone offers him some latte. A Mean Bean Machine reference did make it to the sequel, where a coffee shop is named "Mean Bean Coffee".
- Sega tried to have Dr. Robotnik be referred to as his Japanese name, Dr. Eggman, but Paramount executives insisted he be called Dr. Robotnik. As a compromise, Sonic refers to Robotnik as "Eggman" several times throughout the movie.
- Early promotional material for the film showed Sonic wearing Nike sneakers. These were changed to Puma-like shoes in the final film.
- Infamously, early promotional materials and trailers for the movie feature a significantly more realistic and ghastly-looking Sonic model, which more resembles a naked, dead-eyed little person covered in fur than any previous incarnation of the hedgehog. The reaction from fans and non-fans alike was so swift and so unforgiving that the movie was delayed from its original late-2019 release date to give the character designers and animators time to create a model with better appeal, leading to the more cartoonish, expressive Sonic from later trailers.
- Yuji Naka claims to have approached the film makers about making a Stan Lee-style cameo in the movie, but they never responded back to him.
- Ben Schwartz claims that he recorded a harmonized version of the famous SEGA chant at the beginning of the Sonic games to be used in the film, but ultimately didn't make the cut.
- Early descriptions of the movie mention Sonic battling and being chased by "lizard warriors" from his home planet, with concept art of them showing up a day after the movie was released. The leader of the warriors was named "Rava" in the production sheets. When the producers concluded that the lizards didn't connect to the franchise in any conceivable way, they discarded them in favor of the echidnas (who are connected to the franchise) in the final film.
- "Gotta Go Fast" by Chizzy Stephens was considered for the movie's theme before being passed over for Wiz Khalifa's "Speed Me Up".
- Josh Fowler has stated that had the decision not been made to make the origins of the rivalry between Sonic and Dr. Robotnik the central plot for the movie, the Chaos Emeralds and Super Sonic would've appeared in some capacity.
- Originally, Longclaw would've survived the echidna attack and accompany Sonic on Earth, where she would continue to raise him until she dies by his side, and it's this event that causes him to feel despondent and lonely on Earth since she was his only friend. It was changed to her fate being ambiguous in the final film for reasons unknown (though it's alleged the staff wanted to make Sonic's backstory more tragic), but the scene in question was included as a bonus feature on the home video release.
- Longclaw had different art designs.
- Crazy Carl was supposed to have more dialogue in the movie, and a longer scene (which, along with the other deleted scenes below, is included on the home video release as a bonus) of him attempting to trap Sonic would've had him use batteries as bait. It was changed to Sonic simply setting off the traps in rapid succession.
- Said scene would soon be followed by another extended sequence of Carl talking to Tom about the "Blue Devil" at the local bar, which would end with Tom offering to escort Carl home. Like the previous scene, only certain portions of it were used in the final film. A promotional image of the scene taken during filming infamously led some to mistake Carl as Robotnik.
- Another deleted scene would've had Sonic explaining the EMP incident at the baseball field to Tom while in San Francisco.
- There is also a moment where Rachel has a phone conversation with Wade, with the implication that a romantic relationship would form down the line. This was cut.
- The film's original ending would've had Sonic deciding to go back to his home planet, rather than stay on Earth, feeling obligated to start helping those he had left behind years ago. Footage of this ending even appeared in trailers and TV spots, making it a very close aversion to Trailers Always Spoil.
- Riff Raff was cast in an undisclosed role and also contributed to the soundtrack, but both were cut before release. Some speculate it's because he broke his NDA.
- According to writer Pat Casey, Tails was supposed to be a major character from the get-go in one draft, but that idea was dropped in favor of the character appearing in the second stinger as a Sequel Hook.
- There used to be a bigger chili dog reference, with Tom offering Sonic one at the bar when he started feeling sad. He ate his and Tom’s chili dog in two seconds.
- Originally the townsfolk were going to help in the final fight, but it was deemed too absurd.
- Sonic's line "We're a couple of loose cannons" was originally written as "We're total badasses". Paramount executives vetoed it so that the movie could keep its PG rating (Robotnik already had two Precision F-Strikes for himself in the movie, so an additional curse would've drawn the MPA's ire).
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
- Jason Momoa was considered for the voice of Knuckles before Idris Elba was cast. Momoa turned it down due to contractual obligations to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
- There was discussion about Dwayne Johnson (who was used as a Shout-Out in the first movie) appearing in the movie, with some suggesting he would play two roles, one of which would be a voice role (believed to be Knuckles, before Momoa and Elba were approached). He ended up being unavailable when Black Adam (2022) started filming, so the idea was dropped.
- Concept art for the film showcases a few differences from the final film, such as a more game-accurate outfit for Dr. Robotnik, the Tornado having Sonic's name on it (as opposed to 761 as in the final film) and a rocket underneath it (akin to the Tornado in the classic games), an unused snowboard design, that actually came with Jakks Pacific's Sonic figure, and Sonic and Tails being joined by the military in the aerial plane fight against the Death Egg Robot.
Miscellaneous
Sonic the Comic
- Johnny was intended to have a crush on Amy, however this element ended up scrapped.
- The original writers wanted Amy to be a scrappy, playful Girly Bruiser akin to a character out of a screwball comedy who teases Sonic a lot. Executive Meddling put an end to that quickly; they wanted a more role-model-ish female character. This resulted in Amy's character change into a more tomboyish, level-headed character.
- The original intention for the Shanazar arc was to have both Nigel Kitching and Lew Stringer alternate between who would do the main story and who would do the sidestory in each issue, with the intent of revealing that Shanazar was Mobius in the past, even having Knuckles present. However, Kitching was sacked as the lead writer, with the plan never being realized until he returned as the lead writer for the final issues, which cover the events of the Sonic Adventure adaptation.
- Kitching also suggested that Robotnik should have another redesign after he was transformed back into Kintobor while on Shanazar, this time using the design used for Eggman in Sonic Adventure.
- Lew Stringer's original idea for the Agent X character was that he was going to be Johnny, and not a shadowy doppelganger named Shayde. However, Stringer changed his plan since he felt that he would be stepping on Kitching's toes with his character and split the two, considering that Johnny was "too nice a guy" to be Agent X.
- According to Nigel Kitching, one-shot characters Hobson and Choy were also planned to become Freedom Fighters and join Sonic.
- Kitching's original description of the Kintobor Computer, as related in a message to a fan podcast, made note that the character was to be a father figure to Sonic that he may eventually rebel against. Such a rebellion never occured.
- In a message on a fan podcast, Kitching recalled that an early idea was that Sonic would be written as a comedic character, due to having a cute design, however Kitching instead wrote him as "an action hero type".
- Kitching was originally going to use Snively as Robotnik's assistant, as he thought that he was required to use the character as the television cartoon was debuting around the same time. When he discovered he didn't have to, he created Grimer instead.
- After Sonic the Comic went reprint-only, Kitching posted some of his intended ideas for stories on the STC mailing list - here and here for example. Some of those ideas were later adopted by the STC-Online Fan Webcomic.
- Sonic was at one point to encounter an aquatic race according to Richard Elson. This idea later came to fruition in STC-Online.
- Early concept art depicts Sally as a bikini-clad human and Doctor Robotnik as either a horned, green humanoid who looks nothing like his game incarnation or a pig-looking enemy with a ponytail. Bunnie had three variations, as well - one had her head mounted on a crude robotic body with her ears done up in a braided ponytail, a second made her a cyborg, but more slender and only her legs were robotic, while a third design leaned closer to her finalized form, where only her arm and head were still flesh and blood. Antoine was actually much more strong and dashing before his later lanky and cowardly look. There was also a design for a "golden glow" Sonic, which probably meant they were going to translate Super Sonic at one point.
- An animatic of an unused intro can be seen on 2007 boxset. Of note, Sally is depicted as looking much more like Ricky, which could suggest that was an earlier design. The intro was fully animated but the only known footage of it is from a 1993 convention. Sally's design is slightly different in this version of the intro.
- Regarding the scrapped season 3:
- The show would have gone on to feature Snively working together with Ixis Naugus as the new main villains.
- The Freedom Fighters would have befriended a magician named Nate Morgan, who was a tall and lanky black man. Nate would appear in the Archie Comics, but only his name and race would be transferred over, as there, he was a short man who was into science.
- Season 3 would've revealed that Mobius was Earth All Along.
Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)
- Originally, Endgame would have revealed that Sally was permanently dead with the Sally waking up in the end supposedly being revealed to be a robot fake once she started acting more and more out of character.
- Knuckles: 20 Years Later was meant to be part of the Sonic Super Special title and would have started with the Wham Line of Julie-Su being pregnant. The title was cancelled before the story could reach there and was repurposed a few years later as back up stories.
- Had Penders not walked, the story would have revealed that the time travelling attempt was a dud and nothing changed.
- There is a scene in Ian Flynn's continuation where King Sonic is crying. He was supposed to be crying intensely, but Sega has strict regulations on Sonic crying and made the artist redraw the scene.
- The Sonic Adventure adaptation was meant to go through the main title, Knuckles' title and Sonic Super Special. However, at the very last minute, Knuckles' title was cancelled, forcing them to cram the entire storyline into Sonic's title.
- The show was supposed to be a prequel to SatAM, with a strong Stern Chase plot, Robotnik as a Knight of Cerebus, and his Robomatic functioning more like the Roboticizer from SatAM. Everything else is still the off-the-wall wackiness that defines the actual show.
- According to character sheets, Adventures was originally called Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, in the same vein as The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.
- According to one of the early character bibles, originally planned to introduce a new main character in Adventures called Merlina — no relation to the Merlina that later appeared in Sonic and the Black Knight. A clumsy and not very skilled witch who "has the body of a young Elvira but with the spunky attitude of Roseanne", and who who hates to be rushed. She and Sonic of course would have butted heads, and Tails would have to act as the peacemaker between the two of them.
- A concept from an early series bible would have centered around Sonic and Tails teleporting across planets via "Dimensional Door Rings", each of which was conquered or targeted by Dr. Robotnik. One variation of this pitch appears to be episodic, featuring Sonic, Tails and the aforementioned Merlina traveling to various different planets. Another take was more story heavy, scaling the amount of planets down to 5 with each getting a 13 episode Story Arc along with an overall Myth Arc of Sonic and Tails searching for the six Chaos Emeralds and encountering a freedom fighting group on each planet. Interestingly, one of the proposed planets would have been Earth, conquered by Robotnik.
- An early series bible shows that the show was going to have more game elements and references, with Emerald Hill being a major location, and Mystic Cave appearing as well. Even more evident in the pilot, which shows Emerald Hill and Hill Top in their game look, and features game elements such as loop-de-loops, Robotnik's wrecking ball, and badniks in their game designs. The final show still had the appearance of game locations and Badniks, but most of them looked completely unrecognizable.
- Jim Cummings was originally brought on for the voice of Robotnik in the pilot. When the series premiered, the role was given over to Long John Baldry, although Cummings would voice Robotnik in the SatAM series.
- In the same pilot, Tails was voiced by the late Russi Taylor in the "Sonic Says" segment
- Queen Aleena was originally going to be named Queen Rachel, and Manic's original name was Edsel.
- In addition, the King of Mobius (Aleena's husband and the triplets' father) was going to be one of the many mysteries that the triplets would have to solve.
- The infamous "Nazo" character is (supposedly) an early Super Sonic design that was scrapped for being too derivative.
- The pitch trailer shows that the anime took place on a World of Funny Animals. The finalized anime instead went with a common ground between the game's Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My! and World of Funny Animals; Sonic lives on a world naturally without humans, but he and his friends end up transported to Earth.
- Other things seen in the trailers are different designs for the X-Tornado and the Chaos Emeralds.
- Concept art depicts Lindsey with longer hair and different shaped eyes.
Other
- The first draft of the Sonic the Hedgehog Bible is the earliest known western backstory for Sonic. It shows major differences between the first and second draft. The story was used in media like Sonic the Comic and Sonic the Hedgehog Promo Comic but with elements removed. In the first draft, Sonic, then called "Sonny", was a hedgehog living in Nebraska with his mother in the early 21st century. His father died when Sonic was only a few days old. Sonic grew up poor but he was happy and was a good athlete. It's shown that Sonic had a lot of hedgehog attributes, like eating mealworms (alongside burgers), aging faster than humans, and hibernating in the winter. Humans lived alongside animals but animals couldn't communicate with humans. Sonic meets a man named Dr. Ovi Kintobor who uses a machine on him so they communicate. The rest of the backstory - with Sonic turning blue and Kintobor turning into Robotnik - is the same but there are added details, such as Kintobor working for the government.
- Adventures and SatAM were originally derived from a single cartoon that had an artsyle like the former with a plot similar to the latter. The Freedom Fighters were called the "Freedom Team", consisted of Sonic, Totally Radical anthropomorphised versions of the animal friends, and "Princess Acorn", a proto version of Sally that's a yellow feline instead of a brown squirrel
- A third Sonic cartoon, titled Super Sonic Sisters was planned to be produced alongside Adventures and SatAM. This series would have been targeted at the female demographic and focused on Monica and Isabelle, Sonic's Polar opposite twin cousins, with Isabelle being the Red Oni to Monica's blue Oni. Isabelle and Monica would attend Mobius Moon High and run the school's news program, Comet Tails. The twins' parents would have consisted of a mother who's a mechanic and a father who's a chef. Other characters would have included Obnotnik, Dr. Robotnik's nephew who is always trying to one-up the twins, Ms. Astral Dawn, the twins' mentor and a former astronaut and anchorwoman from Mobius News Network, Cal Tech, the Mobius Moon High one-team tech crew, and Mr. Straighten Narrow, the school's by-the-book principal who keeps the twins' schoolwork and careers in balance. Sonic himself would have appeared in an episode titled "Space Weighs For No One" as a fitness coach who who helps Isabelle back into shape after a rival school's coach feeds her one of Robotnik's instant weight-gain bars. Super Sonic Sisters never made it past early development documents.
- Kellytoy's Sonic plushline has multiple unreleased plushes, of which include: variants of their Sonic and Tails plushes made with the same metallic material as their Silver and Super Sonic plushes, a Cheese plush, and a Sonic The Werehog plush. YouTuber and media merchandise extraordinaire PatMac owns the only known Werehog prototype.
- Jazwares has multiple unreleased plushes; those known include two separate Sonics with the gauntlet and Excaliburn, Dr. Eggman, Knuckles, Classic Super Sonic, and Big the Cat. As with Kellytoy Werehog, PatMac owns and has released a video covering the prototype of the Big plush.
- Sega in Japan originally planned to reveal a new Sonic-related announcement on the 20th of each month in 2020 leading to the franchise's 25th anniversary in 2021, calling it Sonic 2020. However, the COVID-19 Pandemic hijacked their plans and led to the whole project getting dropped, with only the February 20th announcement being released.
- Part of Sega's 2020 plans was to host their (then annual) Sonic panel at SXSW with the intent of announcing new stuff related to the franchise. When the pandemic (then an outbreak at the time) ensured that SXSW couldn't be held, Sega planned to reveal the announcement meant for March in April via a new format. A few days before the announcement's intended release, Sega delayed said announcement as the pandemic tightened its grip on the world. Sega would ultimately host a Sonic Central livestream on May 27th, 2021 with a slew of new announcements (including Sonic Colors Ultimate and Sonic Origins) culminating with a teaser for the then-untitled Sonic Frontiers, though, it is not confirmed if the announcements shown in the livestream were intended to be for 2020 prior to the pandemic.
