Five years after the first live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie was released, fans have almost forgotten how close they came to seeing pure nightmare fuel in that blockbuster movie. The original Sonic design was a strange mix of blue fur and too many teeth, but the redesign of Sonic that followed was far more faithful to the video games. A26, a group of renegade Sonic fans, isn’t satisfied with it. They’re busy putting Ugly Sonic back into the movie, with a project called Sonic the Hedgehog: The 2019 Cut, and a trailer for it is set to be released on December 24.
A26 originally intended to have the trailer out this week, but they weren’t satisfied with the result and pushed the date back a few weeks. “We wanted Sonic’s animation to feel as fluid as possible, and to be honest, it would have gotten some negative reviews if we’d released it today,” A26 wrote in a social media post. “We promise it will be totally worth it, paying tribute to the original design as it always should have been.”
To give you an idea of what you can expect, A26 releases a short GIF of Ugly Sonic jogging inside a washing machine. The project is expected to be released online in 2026. While it’s going to be a long wait to see the 2019 cut of Sonic the Hedgehog, you can see the infamous character–voiced by I Think You Should Leave’s Tim Robinson–save the day in 2022’s Chip ‘n Dale movie.
A fourth Sonic the Hedgehog movie is also in development and scheduled for release in March 2027, followed by a “Sonic universe feature” that will hit theaters on December 22, 2028.
