Sonic Speeds Towards New Anime Debut With First Look Trailer – Watch

It’s hard to believe that the lovable blue speedster Sonic has been around for 35 years, and he’s arguably as popular as he’s ever been. Sonic The Hedgehog 4 will feature the debut of Amy in the big screen franchise, but at Anime Expo 2026, SEGA just revealed an epic Anime team-up featuring Amy, Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, and Tails, and you can watch the first trailer for it right here.

To celebrate Sonic’s 35th anniversary, SEGA debuted a new Sonic animated short titled Sonic the Hedgehog: Memories and Beyond, and as you can see in the very first trailer, it looks fantastic. The trailer features a battle between Team Sonic and Eggman’s powerful creation, Metal Sonic, and while Team Sonic certainly has the numbers advantage, they soon learn that it still might not be enough to take Metal Sonic down. The short is expected to release this Fall, and we’ll keep you posted when there’s an exact release date. You can find the official synopsis below (via Noisy Pixel).

“Dr. Eggman’s new evil scheme is to upgrade Metal Sonic into the ultimate fighting machine by stealing Sonic’s life-data and harnessing the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic and his friends realize that to defeat Metal Sonic they must rely on the friendship they built through their adventures.”

Sonic the Hedgehog Has Become a Beloved Character for a Whole New Generation

A 35th anniversary is a huge deal for any franchise, though it’s not often that a franchise gets more popular with time, especially after a substantial lull. There was a time after the franchise’s first heyday that it wasn’t even on most mainstream fans’ radar, but these days the franchise is as popular as ever, and in some ways it’s even more popular than it was when it first became a hit on the Sega Genesis.

The Sonic franchise has continued to release new video games, comics, and animated series, but in 2020, the franchise received its first feature film, and the franchise hasn’t looked back since. The first film ended up bringing in over $300 million worldwide, and the sequels have increased that number both times, with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 hitting $405 million and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hitting $492 million.

Sonic 4 is now on deck, and now that Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow are all in the mix, it is Amy’s time to move into the spotlight. Jim Carrey will also be returning to reprise his beloved role of Dr. Robotnik, and given that Kristen Bell is also joining the cast as Amy, it would be surprising to see Sonic 4 take the top spot for the franchise and break the $500 million mark.

There’s a whole generation that actually knows Sonic not from the original video games, but from the three Sonic movies, and that’s led to a whole new level of popularity for SEGA’s premier hero. Sonic is not only getting new games like Shadow Generations and Sonic Crossworlds, but the whole team is crossing over with other worlds on a regular basis outside of games as well, including DC Comics in the excellent DC X Sonic the Hedgehog series.

2027 is looking to be another banner year for the speedster, and now we have a new animated short to look forward to on top of the new movie, and we can’t wait to see what else is coming down the road for this wonderful franchise.

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