Sega wanted to abandon the Sonic series, but the success of the first movie changed everything

franchise Sonic the Hedgehog It wasn’t always in as good a condition as we see today. Actually, second Iizuka TakashiSonic Team Historical Manager, Sega even considered shutting down the series permanently during one of the most difficult moments in its history. Iizuka himself revealed this in a new interview with One More Game on the 35th anniversary of the character’s creation.

Looking back on the character’s history, Iizuka explained the importance of Sonic in his life: “35 years later, more than my children, I consider this series a son,” and there are good moments and bad moments. at the worst time, Executives told me we had to cancel the entire franchise. I have to fight within the organization to keep it alive for as long as possible. “

According to Iizuka, what completely changed Sonic’s fate was first live action moviereleased in 2020, was a huge commercial and critical success. “The biggest turning point was the first movie. It was a huge success, It really changed the course of the franchise” he said. Sega has since relaunched Sonic with new games, cross-media projects and a more ambitious strategy.

Shadow was supposed to die, but fans saved him

Another interesting anecdote told by Iizuka is Sega had plans to permanently kill Shadow of the Hedgehogintroduced in Sonic Adventure 2.

“If you’ve played Sonic Adventure 2, you know that Shadow basically dies at the end of the game. The original purpose was to eliminate the character,” he explained. “but Shadow is so popular We decided to bring him back to Sonic Heroes. “

Today, Shadow is one of the most popular characters in the series Reach the level of popularity of Sonic himself.

“Now that the third movie has come out, Shadow’s popularity is even greater. The most popular characters used to be Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and that’s always been the case. But now Shadow has reached the same level of popularity as Sonic. Personally…Shadow is my favorite character. I want to give him more space, and I want to focus on him a little more.”