It seems the Sonic cinematic universe is sticking with the pattern of releasing a Sonic film every two years. Paramount Pictures and the official Sonic movie Twitter account announced that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be coming to theaters on December 20, 2024.
Running faster, flying higher, and punching harder. #SonicMovie3 hits theatres on December 20, 2024. pic.twitter.com/DcFGbaKUao
— Sonic the Hedgehog (@SonicMovie) August 9, 2022
The holiday release date comes as surprise for some Sonic fans, as the previous films came out earlier in their respective years. Sonic the Hedgehog came out on Valentine’s Day 2020 after a three-month delay (on account of “Ugly Sonic” needing a makeover), while Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released on April 8 this past spring.
Although Sonic 3 is coming out much later in the year than its predecessors did, its release date happens to coincide with the 23rd anniversary of the GameCube release of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (though the original game released on the Dreamcast in June 2001), which appears to be the source material for the sequel based on the appearance of Shadow the Hedgehog in the post-credits scene for Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The movie will be running in direct box office competition with James Cameron’s Avatar 3.
In the meantime, we have a Knuckles the Echidna spinoff series coming to Paramount+ in 2023, with Idris Elba reprising his voice-over role of the muscular echidna. We also have Sonic Prime coming out on Netflix later this year courtesy of WildBrain, and Shadow and Big the Cat are confirmed to appear in the series.
Game-wise, the hedgehog’s next game adventure is Sonic Frontiers, which is set to release this holiday season. More information about the game will be revealed at Gamescom‘s Opening Night Live stream on August 23.