Now Sonic will compete with Knuckles in this second film. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a 2022 action-adventure comedy film directed by Jeff Fowler and written by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, based on the video game franchise published by Sega. The sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), it stars Ben Schwartz returning as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog, with the rest of the cast consisting of James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Shemar Moore, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Lee Majdoub, Idris Elba, and Jim Carrey. The film follows Sonic (voiced by Schwartz) and Tails (voiced by O'Shaughnessey) teaming up to find the Master Emerald, before Dr. Eggman (Carrey) and Knuckles (voiced by Elba) do.
The behind-the-scenes video opens with Sonic eating a hotdog and dropping himself off the top of a building. After that, the film's director, Jeff Fowler immediately said how happy he was to be able to bring Sonic 2 celý film back to the big screen.
Sonic voice actor Ben Schwartz said one of his favorite things while making this second film was when he got to go deeper into the character's mythology.
Schwartz's comments indicated that there would be more classic scenes from the original 1991 game.
Besides Schwartz, there is also Dr. Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey, returns with his iconic mustache looking even bigger. Quoted from Collider (01/04), Carrey said, "As far as I'm concerned, it's not big enough."
The video also shows the characters who will be returning from the first film and who will be making their debut in the second film.
The character who appears in the post-credits scene of the first film, Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) will appear as Sonic's partner in this film.
Tails won't be the only character from the game to appear. Idris Elba will voice Knuckles, Sonic's nemesis and Dr. Robotics.
In the original video game, Knuckles represents an echidna, an animal that closely resembles a hedgehog. In the Sonic series of games, Knuckles is also a guardian of the Emerald Master and his name comes from the spikes he holds in his hands.
Knuckles first appeared in 'Sega's Sonic 2 streaming' and has since become a fan favorite character. Paramount has confirmed a spinoff series centered around Knuckles will premiere on Paramount+.
This behind-the-scenes video shows a tough looking Knuckles ready to become a fearsome opponent for Sonic, Tails, Tom (James Marsden), and Maddie (Tika Sumpter).
Other films released at the same time as Sonic the Hedgehog 2:
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Development
In 2013, Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the rights to produce and distribute a Sonic film. On June 10, 2014, a live-action animated film was announced as a joint venture between Sony Pictures’ Columbia Pictures and Marza Animation Planet, a Japan-based subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings which had produced CGI cutscenes for several Sonic games. It would be produced by Neal H. Moritz by his Original Film banner alongside Takeshi Ito, Mie Onishi, and Toru Nakahara, and written by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux. In February 2016, Sega CEO Hajime Satomi said the film was scheduled for 2018. Blur Studio's Tim Miller and Jeff Fowler were hired in 2016 to develop it; Fowler would make his feature directorial debut, and Miller would serve as executive producer. Blur Studio previously produced cutscenes for the games Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), for which Fowler directed cutscenes, and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Patrick Casey, Josh Miller, and Oren Uziel were writing the screenplay, while Casey and Miller wrote the story.
On October 2, 2017, Paramount Pictures announced that they had acquired the rights after Sony put the film in turnaround. Almost all of the production team remained unchanged. In February 2018, it was announced that the film would be released in November 2019. During production the film used the working title "Casino Night", named after one of the stages in the Sonic games. Early drafts featured Sonic's Super Sonic form from the video games. The ideas were discarded as Fowler felt "it didn't make sense to obviously bring in the Super Sonic thing just yet” and wanted to focus on the origins of Sonic and Robotnik's relationship.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Casting
In May 2018, it was reported that Paul Rudd was in talks for a lead role as Tom, "a cop who befriends Sonic and will likely team up to defeat Dr. Robotnik”; however, this was later denied by Paramount.A day later, it was announced that James Marsden was cast in an undisclosed role, but later revealed to be Tom Wachowski. In June, Tika Sumpter was cast as Tom's wife, with Jim Carrey cast to play the villain, Dr. Robotnik.
In August, Ben Schwartz joined the cast to voice Sonic. This marked a rare occasion in which the character would not be voiced by Roger Craig Smith, who has been voicing Sonic in most incarnations since 2010. Schwartz, a fan of the original video games, was chosen for the role after Fowler and Miller cast him for a test reading as they pitched the project to several studios. Having enjoyed his performance, they officially cast Schwartz as the voice of Sonic. Adam Pally and Neal McDonough were added to the cast later that month. Debs Howard and Elfina Luk joined the cast the following November. Riff Raff was cast in an undisclosed role, but was cut from the film.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Filming
Principal photography began in mid September 2018 and ended in Vancouver, Ladysmith, and Vancouver Island on October 16, 2018. Key production scenes were also filmed in Liwa Oasis, United Arab Emirates. During filming Ben Schwartz was unavailable, and a stand in performed alongside Marsden.
