God of War’s art director Raf Grassetti, who reinvented a new look for Kratos in 2018, has become something of an Instagram celebrity as of late.
Grassetti has been creating hyper realistic artwork featuring some of gaming’s most iconic characters. He made waves with the team from Star Fox, and has received a lot of acclaim for his work in recreating characters from Super Smash Bros., Spawn, Dragon Ball Z, and more.
His most recent foray into the game character world came in the form of Sonic the Hedgehog and two of his most iconic pals.
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Grassetti created some stunning visuals for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, coming off the heels of the Sonic movie making major headlines throughout the entertainment world with a massive opening.
“I had a great time with my son this past week with the release of the new movie, so these are for him,” Grassetti said. “I’ll do everything I can to help support this movie as I do want to see more game adaptations in the future. Hope you guys like them. Expect some more dark comic stuff next. I’ve got some ideas I wanted to do for a long time that I feel that I’ll get to them now.”
Grassetti was right to strike while the iron was hot with Sonic. The film, which was at one time mired in controversy and fan outrage, had the single largest opening for any video game adaptation ever. It even beat out last year’s smash hit, Detective Pikachu.
Of course, the controversy all stared because of the original design for the titular Hedgehog. The first trailer showed off a Sonic that looked less like his video game counterpart and more like an actual Hedgehog. The result was highly unpopular and downright frightening.
Twitter practically exploded with the force of fan rage, and to the creative team’s credit, those criticisms did not fall on deaf ears.
In response to the fan reaction, Paramount Pictures agreed to delay the movie several months to give the team time to go back and “fix” the appearance of Sonic, bringing him more in line with the lovable cartoonish blue hedgehog that we have come to know and love since the early 90’s.
Sonic’s new look was hugely popular and the box office numbers showed that. There are already major conversations and rumors floating about regarding a sequel, where it is rumored that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could be voicing Knuckles.
