Franchise: Sonic The Hedgehog

Tommy Tallarico, credited composer for the "Molten Mine", "The Cauldron", and "Great Megalith" music tracks in Sonic and the Black Knight claimed in 2022 to have been the first American to work on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. Even if one refuses to count external work such as localization, marketing, and multimedia adaptations, this is not true, as Americans have worked on art, programming, and music for Sonic titles as far back as the 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, with Tallarico having previously shown awareness in 2014 of American pop star Michael Jackson's involvement in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. In 2023, his involvement in writing the three tracks came into question when it was discovered that they contained similarities to several demos originally credited to Todd Dennis, a composer at Tommy Tallerico Studios in the 1990's, and originally written for the games Black Dawn and Adrenix.

Ben Hurst, one of the writers for the 1993 "Sonic the Hedgehog" animated series, attempted to pitch a continuation of the show to Sega in 2002 as either a third season or a movie. He consulted DiC Entertainment, who produced the show (as well as two other Sonic cartoons, "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Sonic Underground"), and was given the name of a Sega executive who wanted to talk with him more about the idea. Hurst then received a call from Ken Penders, at the time the head writer for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, who had been made aware of Hurst's interest in making a movie based on the series. Hurst offered to include Penders in the project, and told him his strategy for the pitch was to develop a satisfying storyline to conclude the show, and simultaneously giving Sega ideas for new games. This resulted in a long-standing controversy where Hurst claimed that Penders sabotaged his plan by telling Sega that he was trying to co-opt the franchise, resulting in Hurst's dismissal from the project. Over 13 years after Hurst's death, Penders would give his side of the story in a 2023 blog post, claiming that Hurst's joint proposal between the two would involve asking Sega to pay them to produce the series, and doubted that Sega would even schedule a meeting to let them pitch it if Sega funding the pitch was the premise, stating that "the owner of any IP is looking for a payday when it comes to using the rights for their properties."

In September 2003, Penders pitched his own concept for a Sonic the Hedgehog movie, titled "Sonic Armageddon". Four pieces of concept art were produced, and even a homemade pitch video was made to show to Sega executives. From what is known about the pitch (which seemed to borrow elements from both the 1993 series and the Archie comics), it would have involved the planet Mobius being destroyed and changed the depiction of the roboticization procedure to something much more gruesome than what had been previously seen. Notably, several major characters (such as the Freedom Fighters sans Sonic, Tails and Sally) are not shown in either the pitch video or the concept art, and the characters that are shown are given major redesigns. A common belief is that DreamWorks Animation was Penders' choice to produce the film, but Penders would later state in 2019 that he had pitched the idea to Sega only, and that DreamWorks had no involvement. The film never materialized; Penders would later claim on separate occasions that the idea was dropped because of "massive corporate upheaval", as well as the development of the animated series "Sonic X" affecting talks regarding the film.

On September 21, 2020, as part of his podcast BumbleKast, writer Ian Flynn expressed interest in adapting Cosmo and the Metarex from the animated series "Sonic X" into IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, which would effectively incorporate them into the mainline Sonic canon. A year later, he would reveal that said arc would not happen anytime soon, as fellow writer Evan Stanley had more stories that needed to be finished. In January 2024, however, Flynn revealed that most content that comes from the show is off the table, including characters such as Cosmo, the Metarex, Topaz, Mr. Tanaka, and Ella.

However, there may be an exception to this in the form of the "Next Show", a fictional children's show featuring a purple mascot character named Next that Cream and Cheese are shown to be fans of during Sonic X. The show was first referenced in Cream's Sonic Channel profile, where it was listed as one of her likes. Later, 2023 would feature two seperate instances of the show being referenced: first during the "Otherworld Comedy" series of wallpapers posted on Sonic Channel, where it was mentioned in the story for the May 2023 wallpaper ("Story Act 5: My Vector Man"), then later as part of the official Christmas 2023 picture, where a toy based on Next appears amongst the pile of gifts.

Thrash the Tasmanian Devil, a character introduced in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, is based on a purple sprite that is created for several milliseconds on the game's title screen if the player quickly switches between Sonic and Knuckles' sprites. Notably, Ian Flynn stated in the graphic novel "Sonic Universe 3: Knuckles Returns" that Thrash was meant to be another rogue of Knuckles who could "throw down with Knuckles and have it mean something", which did not line up with his role in his debut during "Sonic Universe" Issue #11. However, this would later be conveyed during the "Endangered Species" story arc of the main comic, where it's revealed that he has a strong hatred towards the Echidna species due to their actions against his ancestors. When asked about the possibility of bringing Thrash back in the comic's reboot, Ian Flynn said he would love to bring him back, but "it comes with all that baggage... We can't really bring him back without people going 'Oh boy! And here we go!'"

There are two instances in the history of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics where writers had attempted to write a same-sex relationship for characters originally created for the 1993 animated series that the comic was based on.

On October 30, 2009, former writer Ken Penders revealed that he had intended for the character Rotor the Walrus to be gay, stating:


It would later be stated that Rotor's "life partner" was Cobar, an Echidna scientist who only ever appeared during the MOBIUS: 25 YEARS LATER storyline. According to technical advisor Robert Repas (speaking on behalf of Penders), Sega feared backlash over the relationship, and thus ordered him to keep the relationship low-key, only allowing subtle hints, though Penders later clarified that it was likely then-editor Justin Freddy Gabrie that he had spoken with and not Sega. At the same time, this relationship has been critcized by fans for its lack of subtextual evidence, which was not helped by Penders only revealing it years after the fact. According to later writer Ian Flynn as part of a Q&A wrap-up, Rotor and Cobar's relationship is considered a piece of behind-the-scenes trivia and is not canon to the current Sonic timeline as, according to him, there had been no canonical build-up to Rotor's sexual preference regardless of intention.

However, Flynn would be involved in the second instance of trying to write in a same-sex relationship. In the first episode of the BumbleKast from October 5, 2015, he stated:


Shortly after the comic's cancellation, Flynn would confirm that he and his wife/fellow writer Aleah Baker had written subtle details hinting at this romance into the comic. He initially described these details as "blatant", but retracted it for "subtle", implying that there were some internal/editorial considerations at play for how far they could go with the hints. During the same BumbleKast episode, he also revealed that part of the reason why Sally and Nicole's relationship was made subtle was due to potential backlash from the Sonic fandom, as Sally had been commonly depicted as Sonic's girlfriend and love interest up to that point. One of Sega's mandates for the comic near the end of its run was that game characters like Sonic were not allowed to enter serious relationships, meaning Sonic would not be allowed to commit to Sally in the comic's reboot.

On March 17, 2019, in response to a post on the Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account celebrating St. Patrick's Day, YouTuber Jacksepticeye jokingly asked if he could voice "Irish the Hedgehog", to which the Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account responded:


A year later, they made good on this promise, releasing a video titled "Irish the Hedgehog" on the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel. According to Sega, the character was designed by artist Mark Hughes, and the video included a "folksy" remix of the song "Escape from the City" from Sonic Adventure 2 made by Hyper Potions and Jun Senoue.

A few years afterwards, Jacksepticeye would return to the Sonic franchise to voice another character: the appropriately-named Jack from the "Sonic Prime" episode "It Takes One to No Place".

On August 21, 2021, Ken Penders (a former writer for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics) announced plans to license out various characters from the comic that he has claimed ownership of (Prince Elias, Geoffrey St. John, Queen Alicia, etc.). Notably, this list included Scourge the Hedgehog (originally known as "Evil Sonic"), much to the bewilderment of Sonic fans as the character was depicted as an alternate reality version of Sonic (Scourge's original design was, visually speaking, simply Sonic wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses). When asked about this, Ian Flynn stated that (in his opinion) Sega and IDW wouldn't think it was worth the trouble to license side characters from a third party, particularly due to the former's desire to move away from referencing the 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog animated series (commonly known as "Sonic SatAM", and a major influence on the Archie Sonic comics), and that it'd be easier to just make new characters. However, due to an inaccurate secondhand account of Flynn's response, Penders released an outline of the licensing deal insisting that he "really is easy to deal with", and accused Flynn of not wanting to work with non-game characters, despite that not being what Flynn said. The deal itself was criticized by fans due to both its steep asking price ($10,000 up front against royalties for a two year license) and for padding out the list of characters with obscure extras (Lt. Smiley, DYNAMAC-3000, etc.). Further complicating matters, the IDW Sonic spinoff miniseries "Imposter Syndrome" was announced, introducing the character of Surge the Tenrec, who many compared to Scourge due to their similar names and designs. Ian Flynn would later reveal that he had always intended for Surge (and her companion Kitsunami the Fenrec) to appear in the comic since the beginning.

On November 15th, RUSH! Comics announced that in association with Ken Penders, Scourge would receive a four-issue miniseries titled "Scourge the Speed Demon". The comic was immediately hit with backlash from fans due to Penders not only licensing out Evil Sonic, but his Scourge persona specifically, as Penders had no involvement with that version of the character (it was conceived by Mike Pellerito and Patrick Spaziante, and developed by Ian Flynn and Tracy Yardley), as well as continuing to blame Penders for the character's removal in the first place. The creative team behind the comic (which did not include Penders, as he merely licensed the character) also came under fire from the fandom: their previous comic, Rush! (for which the company was named after), had included a sexual harassment scene where the hero strips a pair of female villains nude in public because he thought they were hot. More concerningly, the lead artist was discovered to be following a large number of far right accounts (such as Breitbart, PragerU, Steven Crowder, and the Trump family) and had liked some controversial tweets from them (i.e. an Islamophobic tweet from far right activist Paul Joseph Watson), leading many to accuse the artist of being a white supremist. When asked about this, Penders responded:


The team would later release a statement in an attempt to clarify the situation, though it did not help. Likewise, "Imposter Syndrome" #1 was released, leading many to believe that Scourge was no longer needed due to Surge existing. On November 19th, it was announced that the comic had been cancelled a mere four days after its announcement due to the backlash from the fanbase. Ironically, it's worth noting that while Ken does own Scourge, he's forbidden from making new stuff that looks too similar to Sonic in order to avoid brand confusion. Scourge's design in the cancelled comic looked noticeably similar to Sonic's design (specifically the design from the Paramount films), meaning that by cancelling the comic, RUSH! Comics may have been able to avoid a potential lawsuit from Sega for copyright infringement.

According to former Sega employee Del Walker, from his experience working for the company in Japan, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is not particularly popular to domestic audiences there as the character was designed to appeal to Westerners. He claimed this disconnect is so strong that many Japanese gamers do not understand why Sonic is so popular abroad.

When Sonic Prime was released on Netflix, GameFam Studios, the development team behind Sonic Speed Simulator, inserted officially-licensed Sonic Prime product placement into their other games on Roblox - however, this included the unauthorized Friday Night Funkin' fangame Funky Friday, which they would not legally be allowed to make paid content or promotions in.

Friday Night Funkin' creator ninja_muffin99 has expressed interest in taking legal action against GameFam and Sega, though later specified that it would not be through a lawsuit. It is unknown if any legal action has or will be taken.

The appearance of Longclaw in Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog films is reminiscent of the tiles that resemble an owl's head in the Labyrinth Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. In fact, the first film's opening scene features the tile design engraved on a rock as an Easter egg, further hinting at the connection.

According to the Archie comics, Sonic the Hedgehog's real name was originally "Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog", and was meant to act as a part of a never-used plot. However, due to one of the comic writers leaving the staff, this concept was never touched upon, and was eventually retconned as Sonic legally changing his name at an early age, leaving his actual first name a mystery.

This would later be referenced years later, where the Netflix description for the animated series "Sonic Prime" claimed that Sonic's middle name was Maurice.

Due to the cancellation of the animated series "Sonic Underground", its storyline was left unresolved. However, staff members involved in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics had considered finishing the storyline: writer Ian Flynn had thought about writing a new story that could serve to wrap up where the original series left off, but felt it would be "stepping on the original creatives' toes," and that even if he was allowed to do it the story likely wouldn't see the light of day for at least two years. Originally, "Sonic Universe" issue 50 was intended to be the official epilogue for the show, with a preview cover being released. However, the epilogue was cancelled, and the issue instead featured a story centered around Metal Sonic.

In early 2013, Ian Flynn revealed that material from "Sonic Underground" was off-limits: this was the reason why the epilogue was put on hold. He also stated plans to include the epilogue as part of "Lost Hedgehog Tales", a written document featuring Sonic comic material that will no longer be used, suggesting that the epilogue was no longer possible. In June 2017, any chance of a "Sonic Underground" epilogue by Archie was precluded when Sega announced that the comics produced by them had been cancelled.

In the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film, Sonic’s disdain of mushrooms could be a jab at his rivalry with Mario in the 90s. This is reinforced in the Thai dub of the film, where the joke about Tom saying that Sonic won’t be the only “fungi” on the mushroom planet is replaced with “at least you can have a mushroom forever,” to which Sonic replies with “No. I’m not Mario”.

Nintendo possibly “returned the favor” in 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, where the Super Mario Bros. Plumbing advertisement features a map with one of the landmarks listed as “Mushroom Planet”.

In the early 2010s, Pop, a British TV channel that syndicated DIC's Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons, had the fanmade game Sonic on Clouds avaliable on its website.

Dan Slott, a comic book writer best known for his work on Marvel Comics such as "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Fantastic Four", and "Silver Surfer", wrote for two issues of Archie's "Sonic Super Special" series as part of its "Zone Wars" storyline. Despite these being his only works for the comic, he did make one notable contribution: Zonic the Zone Cop, an alternate reality version of Sonic who monitored all realities in order to maintain balance across the various Zones, though allowing other people to appear in other Zones when they are needed. In November 2022, in response to various fan questions about Zonic, Slott noted that he was willing to collaborate with Sega to bring him back, and had no protective hang-ups over the character unlike an unspecified Sonic creator who was "super protective of all the characters he's created over the years to the point where SEGA doesn't want to use ANY of them in other media" (likely referring to legal issues surrounding former writer Ken Penders).

In the aftermath of Ken Penders' lawsuit against Archie Comics that lead to their Sonic the Hedgehog comics getting rebooted, a common misconception among fans is that one of the characters he acquired the rights to as a result was Fiona Fox. This is not actually true: while Penders did help "recreate" the character, the initial character (an Auto-Automaton dubbed "Auto-Fiona"), was created by another former writer, Michael Gallagher. While it's uncertain if that he means he owns the character, Penders has stated that he did not want to claim a character that he did not create.

Quik & Silva features many plagiarized characters as duplicated enemies, including characters from Nebulus, Bubble Bobble, Contra, and The Great Giana Sisters. Among these characters is Sonic the Hedgehog, whose first title had not released at that point, technically making it Sonic's first appearance in a home console video game, even if unauthorized and predated by the arcade game Rad Mobile.

Throughout 2023, Sonic Channel released a monthly series of wallpapers titled "Otherworld Comedy", each one featuring a what-if scenario involving an established character from the Sonic series, alongside another chosen by the community. The stories are comedic in nature, having unlikely scenarios involving the cast of characters.

Notably, the April wallpaper (centered around Silver the Hedgehog), "Story Act 4: In the Veil of Darkness", featured Princess Elise as the chosen character. This not only marks her first appearance in mainstream Sonic media since her cameo in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, but is also the first work she played an active role in since her debut in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). A cutscene in the latter game, called "The Talisman", is referenced in the story when Silver gives Elise the blue Chaos Emerald, calling it a "lucky charm". Additionally, Elise herself received a slight redesign for her appearance here, being depicted in a more cartoon-esque style rather than the realistic design she had in her debut game.

Upon the release of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Ken Penders, a former writer on the Archie Comics Sonic comics, sued Sega and EA for supposedly using Sonic character concepts he had independently trademarked prior - particularly the Nocturnas Clan, a futuristic echidna tribe which he deemed as too similar to his own Dark Legion, a futuristic echidna technocracy. This lawsuit came months after Archie Comics filed their own suit against Penders due to a breach of contract after the trademarking, causing Archie to allow their contract with Sega to expire so they could negotiate new terms for the rights to create Sonic comics. This legal fiasco ended in Archie settling the case with Penders, losing the exclusivity to produce Sonic comics after negotiations with Sega, and causing them to write the "Super Genesis Wave", a super-charged energy blast utilizing the Chaos Emeralds that acted as a massive continuity rewrite where over 500 original characters and concepts created by Penders and other writers for the Archie Sonic comics were retconned. The Sega case on the other hand ended in a stalemate due to the statute of limitations, and will not be able to continue unless Sega uses characters from The Dark Brotherhood again.

Prior to doing official work on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise as one of its writers/artists, Evan Stanley worked on a fan comic called "Ghosts of the Future" based on the series. Set in an alternate reality where Sonic and his friends are defeated by Dr. Eggman with the aid of a mind-controlled Shadow, the comic featured Silver the Hedgehog as the main character, tasked with restoring the seven Chaos Emeralds that were removed from time as a last resort. After being brought on to do official work on the franchise, the fan comic has been referenced on two occasions in official Sonic comics. The first was in issue 257 of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic, which featured cameos from Richard and Deborah Erin (Silver's parents in the comic) during the scene where Rotor is directing rescue operations outside Twinkle Park (note that they are slightly recolored in this scene). The second time was in issue 64 of IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comic, which featured cameos from Vanice the Hedgehog and Sicily the Hedgehog (Silver's sisters in the comic) during the scene where Silver and Whisper are trying to confront Duo.