Sonic The Hedgehog Movie Gets Release Date

Gotta go fast — to the theater, that is.

Paramount Pictures has officially dated its upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog film, announcing (via The Hollywood Reporter) that the flick will race into cinemas on November 15, 2019. 

The studio acquired film rights to the popular SEGA video game series some months ago, and reportedly plans to merge CGI animation with live-action performances for the pic. I Know What You Did Last Summer, I Am Legend, and The Fast and the Furious film franchise creative Neal H. Moritz is attached to produce Sonic the Hedgehog — something of a perfect fit considering his experience working with projects that heavily feature computer-generated footage. 

Deadpool director Tim Miller executive produces with The Green Hornet Toby Asher. Video game producer Dmitri Johnson, who has credits on We Happy Few and Life is Strange, and The Darkness scribe Dan Jevons are set to serve as co-producers. Jeff Fowler, whom Miller has collaborated with under Blur Studio, will helm Sonic in his feature directorial debut. Fowler made waves when he directed the 2005 Oscar-nominated short Gopher Broke, and later stood out as a member of the animation research and development team on Where the Wild Things Are in 2009. 

First introduced in 1991, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise centers around the eponymous blue mammal and his closest friends, Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna. The trio, plus a few others, race around various maps, collecting items (namely the iconic golden rings) and racking up points to thwart the efforts of Doctor Eggman Robotnik, the evil villain whose biggest hope is for world domination. 

Sonic has long been viewed as SEGA's answer to Nintendo's Mario, but has earned incredible clout and recognition on all his own. Since its introduction, the Sonic series has sold more than 360 million copies (both digital and retail games) across various platforms. 

With its mid-November 2019 release date, Sonic the Hedgehog will go up against Warner Bros.' musical comedy Margie Claus starring Melissa McCarthy.