The era of the video game adaptation has spawned some truly terrible releases, but the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise isn’t among them.
Instead, it is among a surprising few adaptations that actually did it right. It joins the likes of Prime Video’s Fallout and HBO’s The Last of Us as a rare success story, and considering the relatively bare original narrative it had to work with, its a genuine masterstroke.
Two Sonic films have released thus far, and a third is on the way to polish off the trilogy. It follows the second film by right around two years, and invites back the same stellar cast — plus the exciting addition of Keanu Reeves — to once again blow audiences away.
The Sonic 3 release date
The first two films in the live-action Sonic franchise were bafflingly popular among audiences. The first film sports a respectable, but middling, 64 percent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences are far more positive. They’ve graced the film with a 93 percent score, and it’s not even as popular as the sequel. Breaking the sequel curse in spectacular style, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is more popular among critics and audiences alike, earning the flick a 69 percent Tomatometer score and a shining 96 percent audience score.
Fans are hoping this trend continues with Sonic 3, which is prepped to land in theaters later this year. The flick saw a slightly chaotic filming schedule, due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, but it still managed to polish off production in time to cinch a 2024 release date.
Viewers can set their sights on Sonic 3 when it arrives in theaters at the end of the year, officially sprinting onto the big screen on Dec. 20, 2024. The flick will reportedly pull large swaths of its story from 2001’s Sonic Adventure 2, which will give longtime fans of the video games plenty of Easter eggs to pick out as they soak up the latest Sonic.