Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends are chasing Mario for box office gold. A filing listed on MarketingPartnerships reveals that Paramount Pictures is working on a Sonic Universe spinoff with an eye toward a December 22, 2028 release.
This confirms an earlier report from Deadline that the studio was planning two major franchise films for the 2028 holiday season. The other, an untitled hybrid live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, will come out November 17th.
A screenshot from Sonic the Hedgehog – Paramount Plus
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It’s likely that Sonic Universe and the accompanying logo are simply placeholders. The official description is also understandably vague for a project this early in pre-production. It simply reads: “From the billion-dollar Sonic the Hedgehog franchise comes an untitled spinoff film expanding the universe with a new adventure.” The movie will be produced by Neal Moritz, producer of the last three Sonic films.
Two things are clear: One, that studios are ready to fully invest in video game properties. And two, that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is following the course he set immediately after taking charge.
The Box Office Shift Toward Gaming IP
Deadline reported that last year “Paramount opened Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to No. 1 at $60.1M domestic. The movie went on to make $236.1M stateside and $492.1M worldwide. All in, the Sonic trilogy for Paramount has grossed $1.2 billion.” A Knuckles spinoff series for Paramount+ also did very well, becoming the No. 1 kids and family show on the streamer by hours watched.
A fourth Sonic movie is scheduled for sometime in 2027.
Building out the Sonic Universe with a new movie every one to three years echoes Nintendo’s strategy of a “consistent release cadence” for its game-to-film adaptations. 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie alone made over a billion dollars worldwide. However, aside from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Nintendo seems to be building out in different directions. The Legend of Zelda movie will be live-action, making a Nintendo Cinematic Universe unlikely.
Mario and Yoshi in Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Nintendo
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This year, A Minecraft Movie made just short of $1 billion worldwide, and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 has already made over $220 million in less than a month. Meanwhile, once bankable IPs like Jurassic Park, Superman, and everything from the MCU struggled at the box office. It seems that video game movies, and perhaps specifically a Sonic Universe movie, are surging in popularity.
It appears that franchise films will continue being very lucrative for studios, and David Ellison is counting on it.
Ellison’s Franchise Focus
When David Ellison took the reins at Paramount last August, he and Co-film chief Josh Greenstein announced an aggressive strategy prioritizing franchise films and putting them in theaters. At the time, a movie in the Sonic universe wasn’t mentioned, though Greenstein name-dropped Star Trek, Transformers, and World War Z.
Those series have struggled or lain dormant for a long time. Sonic movies were already a proven winner before the change in leadership at Paramount, and video game movies now seem poised to dominate the release schedule. In 2026, Paramount will release a movie based on Street Fighter, and it recently signed Peter Berg to direct a Call of Duty film written by Taylor Sheridan.
David Ellison talks to Bloomberg – YouTube, Bloomberg Podcasts
While Paramount has yet to confirm, many fans are speculating the new Sonic Universe spinoff will be a Shadow movie. The character, voiced by Keanu Reeves, was fully introduced in Sonic 3 and set up for a potential return in future installments. Sonic 4 will likely provide some hints, but for now fans will just have to wait and see.
What do you think of the expanding Sonic Universe? What character do you want to see lead the spinoff? Let us know in the comments!
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