God of War Director Weighs In On Sonic the Hedgehog Design Changes

Last week's headlines were dominated by the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie. And unfortunately [...]

sonic
(Photo: Paramount)

Last week's headlines were dominated by the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie. And unfortunately for Paramount and Sega, it wasn't for the right reasons. On Tuesday, Paramount unveiled the live-action comedy adventure to the world and the reaction from the Internet was bad. Very bad. What was the issue? The unconventional design of Sonic. The outcry, pitchforking, and dunking on the design of the blue hedgehog in the movie got so bad that director, Jeff Fowler, took to Twitter and revealed that changes to the character's design will be made as a result of the feedback.

"Thank you for the support. And the criticism," said Fowler. "The message is loud and clear... you aren't happy with the design and you want changes. It's going to happen. Everyone at Paramount & Sega are fully committed to making this character the BEST he can be."

Following the news of the redesign, the Internet mostly celebrated, including the original creator of the character, Yuji Naka. However, not everyone was excited over the announcement. For example, Cory Barlog, the creative director of the recent God of War reboot at Santa Monica Studios, took to Twitter to express his conflicted feelings over the situation.

"Really don't know how I feel about creating in this kind of world," wrote Barlog. "Important to keep the pulse of the audience but this makes it harder to try something really different that, at first may seem like too much change, but on completion might surprise us."

As you can see, Barlog acknowledges that it's important to know your fanbase, however, as a creative, it's clear he's worried about what type of precedent this may set. And I agree, maybe not in the context of this specific example, but fans and the Internet have too much control over creators.

Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. Do you agree with Fowler and co. changing Sonic's design in face of the backlash?

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