Why The Sonic the Hedgehog Movies Got SEGA’s Approval
SEGA senior executive officer, Toru Nakahama has opened up about why the Sonic the Hedgehog movies got the game publisher’s approval to be made.
In a recent interview with Pia, translated by Nintendo Everything, SEGA senior executive Toru Nakahama looked back on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise’s legacy. When looking at the recently successful films, the publisher exec opened up about why SEGA greenlit the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, pointing to one key game for helping revitalize the brand with Western audiences. See what Nakahama explained below:
“We had talks about making a Sonic movie because of Sonic Mania in 2017. Despite Sonic not being initially overly popular in America, he seemed to have rapidly gained popularity. At the time, Sonic was in an odd situation where parents were well aware of who he is, whereas children may or may not know him. So it was easy to imagine that if a Sonic movie came out, this would be a great opportunity for Sonic not only to be known to many generations, but also to areas where Sonic may have never been well known especially considering that movie promotion budget far exceeds that of a video game. I thought it was worth joining in to invest in creating a ‘Hollywood blockbuster.’ I can remember initially hearing comments such as ‘So many game-based movies have flopped,’ and ‘Isn’t he caught in some sort of scam?’. However, with SEGA Sammy Holdings starting, the spirit of taking on new challenges aligned very well with the movie production. It reminded me of the SEGA spirit of ‘trying new things.”
