Sonic The Hedgehog is a cinematic hit. The video game adaptation set records at the box office, beating out last year’s Detective Pikachu to have the best opening for a video game movie ever.
When a movie is so successful, it gets a lot of attention.
Sonic The Hedgehog featured a lot of really cool elements from the original games.
For example, the iconic rings that Sonic collects throughout his games were used as teleportation devices in the movie. Sonic’s iconic red sneakers were even given an origin story.
However, there were two fairly common elements of Sonic’s mythos that were absent from the movie. Those were the Chaos Emeralds and Super Sonic.
The Chaos Emeralds are typically the main focal point of most Sonic games. At some point, you’ll have to gather the emeralds and keep them out of the hands of Doctor Robotnik, AKA Eggman. Occasionally, when Sonic encounters a final boss fight situation, he can absorb the energy of the Chaos Emeralds and turn into Super Sonic.
This is a version of Sonic that resembles a Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball Z. His quills stand straight up and turn yellow. He is also typically surrounded by a yellow aura of power.
When Sonic the Hedgehog’s director Jeff Fowler was asked why the emeralds and Super Sonic were left out of the film, he explained his reasoning.
“It didn’t make sense to obviously bring in the Super Sonic thing just yet,” he said. “I mean, there were very early versions of the script and the outlines where…because we knew that’s something that’s very important in the fan mythology, or the mythology that fans love. And Chaos Emeralds are definitely a huge part, even going back to the first game in ’91. And it was definitely something that we were kind of trying to see. Like, ‘Does this make sense to include one of these?'”
The desire to not over-complicate a standard origin story makes a lot of sense. Especially given that all anyone can talk about since the release of this film is its inevitable sequel. Leaving Super Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds out of the film makes sense when you look at it as a franchise. It gives us somewhere new to go.
Sonic’s story in this first movie did not need the Chaos Emeralds to be effective. However, in a sequel, it can raise the ante enough to provide viewers with something fresh, now that the new car smell of the origin story has worn off.
The major rumor swirling around the Sonic sequel is that Dwayne The Rock Johnson could be in talks to play Sonic’s friend and rival Knuckles.
