The story sounds almost too wild to be true, and yet it comes straight from Takashi Iizuka, the head of Sonic Team. At one point in its history, SEGA had seriously considered ending the Sonic franchise and stopping production of games starring its famous supersonic hedgehog altogether. No bullshit. It was in an interview with One More Game that the tale surfaced, courtesy of Takashi Iizuka, who looked back on the highs and lows of the franchise as Sonic celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. The Japanese game designer explained that during the company's darkest periods, SEGA executives had directly asked him to consider winding the series down. Iizuka even says he had to fight internally to keep Sonic alive.
And in his view, the real turning point came with the first live-action film, released in 2020 after a troubled production, not least because of Sonic's redesign following that first trailer. Despite the backlash, and after a design overhaul that cost 5 million dollars, the film ended up being a major commercial and even critical success. For Iizuka, its impact on the franchise went far beyond a simple successful adaptation. « The biggest turning point for me was the first movie. It was a huge success and definitely changed the course of this franchise. » he explains in the interview.
Shadow could have disappeared too
The story doesn't end there, either. In the same interview, Iizuka reveals that SEGA had also planned to kill Shadow off for good after Sonic Adventure 2. The character does indeed vanish at the end of the game, but his huge popularity with players quickly changed the team's plans. Shadow was duly resurrected for Sonic Heroes, before gradually becoming one of the most popular characters in the Sonic universe. That popularity climbed even higher with his appearance in the third film, to the point that Iizuka now reckons he's closing in on Sonic himself in terms of popularity.
That's not really a problem for the Sonic Team boss — quite the opposite, since Shadow is his favourite character and he'd like to give him an even bigger role in the future. The character already got his own game in 2024 with Sonic X Shadow Generations, which paired a remaster of Sonic Generations with a new Shadow-focused adventure. Just goes to show it doesn't take much to keep a series alive. Then again, we keep saying it, but you should never really listen to the people at the top...
